The not so great escape
by Azilia James
Summary: Six years. It took six years for the Empire to capture the blue haired street rat. The Ghost crew has finally been caught, and been temporarily put in the Lothal prison. There, they meet a snarky kid. A kid not just in prison, but on death row. There he agrees to help them with the prison life. As the Ghost crew plans their escape, they find a certain blue eyed boy growing on them.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Six years. It took the Empire six years to finally catch the blue haired street rat who's stolen from just about every cart in the capital city market place over the years. He was finally caught, with brute force, and charged with multiple counts of grand larceny, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace. He was sentenced to death.

Due to the law, they can not execute a child of such a young age, and can not be put to death until he reaches the age of fifteen, and was sentenced to serve two years in the local Lothalien capital city penitentiary, city prison to the locals, until he is to be put to death. And that is where 'Dev Morgan' has spent the last four months of his life. And he thought surviving on the streets was hard.

Meanwhile in Tarkin Town,

The local band of rebels that have been smuggling food and other supplies to the former farmers, disloyal to the Empire for refusing to sell their land. Two local storm troopers scouting the town discovered the rebels and recognized their faces from their few wanted posters. The rebels were able to escape the troopers, but not before unsuspectedly being planted by a tracking device.

Which, I guess brings us to now.

Hera grasped the steering wheel rapidly pulling up as the ship just avoided hitting the dry ground of Lothal, along with its pedestrians.

"Hera!" Yelled Kanan through the com from where he sat manning the guns, shooting down the many, many TIE fighters. "Get us into hyperspace already! We can't keep putting pedestrians in danger!"

"No to mention these things just keep coming!" Said Sabine, shooting down another TIE. "It's like they know where we're going!"

"Uh, slight problem. We need a quick decision made, now!" Said Hera, tuning the ship rapidly as six more TIE fighters appeared, seemingly out of no where.

"Then make it!" Urged Zeb.

"A group decision, Zeb!" Hera said, irritably.

Kanan sighed. They were gaining, fast. I think he just realized that this might just be it. "What is it Hera?" He asked, the rest of the crew listening in.

"Okay, in order to get the hyperspace coordinate I need to go twenty paces dead ahead." She explained.

"So? We can make it." Said Sabine.

"It's not that simple. In order to make the jump, we'd be flying right over a school, and we've got about twenty TIEs on our backs, all of which are fiering. The school could easily get hit. Or worse. Kids."

There was dead silence over the com for a second before Kanan finally spoke up, as time was of the essences. "What's our alternative?" He asked.

"We hang a dead right, and go right through the crowd of TIEs, and then gain altitude and try to loose them." She answered.

"Right through them?" Asked Sabine whirly. "Do it." She said.

"Do it." Said Kanan.

"You heard em'." Said Zeb "Ain't losing any more kids to the Empire."

Even Chopper beeped angrily. Most likely to say 'who cares', but Hera just ignored him. "All the permission I need! Brace yourselves!" She said, turning a sharpe right, right into the batch of TIE fighters that were multiplying.

I wish I could say that the Ghost crew made it out of there. That Hera made yet another miracle. But sadly I can't.

I can say that the Ghost crew put up an admirable fight. But it could not survive the forty-something TIE fighters, agent Kallus himself being on the controlling end of one. He just couldn't help himself after realizing that a Lasat had been on the crew they were hunting.

The Ghost crew crash landed on the plans of Lothal with no casualties. Every sole abroad was taken into capture by the Empire, including an old Astromatch droid. It would have been a devastating lose, but the crew was realized to see that the Ghost crash landed exactly five yards away from the school.

The Ghost lay in the plans of Lothal, smoke pouring out of every engine, as twenty of the TIE fighters landed, too, encircling it, and making escape next to impossible. Fifteen storm troopers entered the crashed ship, nine came out, along with the crew, hands up in surrender as they were forced to their knees, a gun to each of their backs, and a trigger happy trooper on the other side. Agent Kallus in front of them.

"You put up quite a fight, I'll give you that." The man snarled. "Lucky for you we managed to take you down with TIE fighters. And prison transport is low. Plus we have some extra, special friends of whom you've caught their eye. Your too important to risk escape." He pondered. "We'll have to wait get a star destroyer." He looked to Kanan. "Jarrus, I presume. The Inquisitor will certainly be pleased with your capture."

The Inquisitor?

"It will take two weeks to arrange for a destroyer to get here to transport the prisoners, sir." Said a trooper at Kallus's hip. "What should we do with the prisoners until then?"

"What? You mean we're not going to have a tea party?" Asked Zeb, annoyed.

"Quiet, Lasat." Ordered Kallus. "Trooper, hold them in the Lothalien prison in capital city until further notice. I'll alert Tarkin."

"Go on, run to your ring leader. Wouldn't want him to shorten your leash." Sabine spat to the agent.

"Is that? Why it is." Said Kallus, looking down to Sabine. "ZL06, the Imperial academy on Mandalor. Was the act of Bounty Hunter simply not low enough for you, that you made the transition of dropping down another peg to the rebel scum?" He spat back.

Kallus then looked back to the rest of the crew, crouching down to get at eye level with Kanan. "Have you ever been to an outer rim prison? The guards don't care, but not as much as the inmates. I'll collect you, if there's anything left to collect, as soon as a Star destroyer opens up, and I can get it down to this morsel of a planet." He stood back up, and began to walk away, but stopped himself, and barley looked over his shoulder before saying, "I will give you one word of advise, rebels. Watch out for the prisoners on death row. There they worst. Their the ones who have nothing left to lose."

….

And just like that, the Ghost crew was cut down, before their prime.

The rest of the day was a haze of disbelief, and a bit of the crash landing they have yet to shake off. There were taken to a building. It's walls of stone, and it's fences of spikes. The sound of footsteps bouncing off of the empty walls, and the sound of metal bars coming to a stop when they slammed into the cement wall.

The crew stood in a open room, cement walls and cement floors. Around it lay metal tables, and sketchy looking beings of all species roamed the room, all in the same bland clothes of black pants, and a grey shirt with the prison logo in the corner.

"Stay here." Ordered one of the prison guards. He looked like a storm trooper without the armor. He looked human, but had odd pointed yellow eyes that was obviously from another species, not like they were going to ask. (Ezra learned that the hard way!)

"Hey everyone." The guard yelled to the room, attracting the attention of the many prisoners in the large room, as he took of the shackles that they wore when they were 'assorted' to the prison. "We've got some new ones here. Try to make them feel real 'welcome'. Make em' last, though! Empire needs em'. Good luck." He said, before leaving the room, the barred doors slamming behind him.

With all of the looks they were getting from the dangerous people around the room had them making them all on edge. Kanan wished he had his lightsaber with him, he usually wore it on his belt in two pieces, but when they stripped them of their weapons they did not know what it was, thankfully. But nonetheless, they were in a locked room, with many prisoners, and nothing to defined themselves. This is gonna be fun.

…..

The crew found an empty table and all sat down, and looked to each other, finally to asses the situation.

"So they just stick the prisoners in here, and then let them all run free and kill each other, and then at night, they all get them in a cell so it's just one on one?" Asked Sabine.

"That seems about right." Said Hera. "We all need to stay together."

"Agreed." Said Zeb.

"I think the way it works is in between meals, and work, and sleep we are all here. At night we have a cellmate." Said Kanan.

"That's pretty much what I said." Shrugged Sabine.

"We will fight if we have to, but don't start anything." Said Kanan.

"So what? We just sit here and wait for the Empire to come and scoop us up?" Asked Zeb.

"No." Said Kanan. "I heard one of the troopers say he thought it would be two weeks."

"And?" Asked Hera.

"And we have two weeks to bust out." Kana finished.

….

Ezra watched the new comers with, as usual, curious eyes. Surviving in prison, and being a kid, and the new comer was basically a death sentence. Ironic, isn't it? With the even newer new comers, some of the spotlight might be taken off of him, which he was grateful for. But he couldn't help but stare. The new comers were a odd bunch, consisting of a hot girl- um, a Mandalorien, a human, a Twi'lek, and and odd looking monster man, a Lasat perhaps? Ezra had only ever heard of them, never seen. But the beast was very muscular, making Ezra uncomfortable, as he looked like he could do some serious damage.

Ezra made a note to try not to get on his bad side. Not Ezra's strong suit, as he had the many scars to prove it, as avoiding people in prison was very difficult.

"Eh, kid. What are you looking at?!" The beast suddenly snarled at him. Ezra, realizing he had provoked it without even meaning to, again, began to feel the finisher feeling of fear, as he slowly made eyes at the beast, not showing weakness, as you couldn't in prison, and shot back,

"Not much. You?" Well, he had already provoked the beast, now he couldn't back down, that would be even worse. He pushed down the lump in his throat that no one liked him. He couldn't even stand there without being called out. A thought for another time.

He stood up and his hands clenched into fists. Ezra's heart was beating a mile a minute at the fear that this was gonna hurt. "How's a kid even land in jail?" He asked. "Steal a juice box?" He teased.

He took a step closer when a hand stopped him, it was the human man. "Zeb, cool it. You going to deck the kid?" He asked sarcastically.

"Thinking bount' it." He said.

"Kid, come here." Said the Mandalorien.

Ezra walked causally over, keeping his distance from the Lasat, the rest of the crew noticing, as he stood at the foot of their table. He looked causally over the table, and briefly wounded if they were a gang, as they stuck together and all came in together, too.

"Yea?" He asked.

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

"Four months." Said Ezra casually. Too casually. It shocked the crew enough to the crew enough to see a kid in a prison, and for four months? He should be in the school they almost hit, not here.

"You know the ropes?" She asked, her own words making a sick taste in her mouth.

"Sabine!" Said Hera.

"What!" She asked defensively. "Do you want to die? Kid knows the ropes, can tell us what we should and shouldn't do."

"And why exactly would I do that?" Asked the thirteen year old.

"Easy." Said Sabine. "Gain new allies, and we won't send Zeb on you." She said, gesturing to the Lasat, as he walked up to the child, fist clenched. Ezra was now petrified. But you can't show it. Not in prison. Sabine felt physically sick at her own voice. She was scaring a kid to gain something. Spin it however you want. It's wrong. But desperate times.

Hera kicked Sabine under the table. "Ow!" She muttered, but knew she deserved it.

"Zeb." Kanan commanded. "Lay off." He said, as he could feel his fear through the force, despite his straight face. "Sit down, kid." He said, as Ezra cautiously sat down. "Besides the threat, she's right. You need allies. We can provided that if you can help us. I'm Kanan, and that's Hera, Sabine, and you've already met Zeb. Who are you?" He asked.

Ezra took a moment before answering. He had not been called Ezra in a very long time. In these walls, he didn't trust anyone with his real name, and when he was on the streets, no one bothered to ask. "Dev." He answered, as that had been his name since four months ago. "Dev Morgan."

"What are you in here for?" Asked Kanan, the rest of the crew looking in curiosity.

Ezra rolled his very bright eyes. "Okay." Said Ezra. "If I'm going to help you, here's rule number one, never, ever, ask an inmate that in here."

…

A/N. I've had this idea for a while, and, well, this day has just been really, really, really bad. Just terrible. Something, just, bad happened today, early morning too, so the whole day was ruined. I have spent literally the entire day in my bed, I'm in my bed right now, and then decided that I needed to do something predictive, so I wrote this. I hope you like it, took me a couple of hours, I swear it will get better. So, to all of you fanficers out there who are having the sucky day too, and just don't want to leave their bed too, hope you liked it, and hope it made your day just a little better. Night guys,

-Azilia


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

For a kid he could really hold his stare.

He looked them all up and down twice, and then once more. He couldn't trust them. You can't trust anyone in prison. Then again, you can't can't trust anyone on the streets either. When had it been the last time he had trusted someone? A question he would think about when he was in his cell at night.

When the cell doors slam shut, and it's just you and your thoughts, well that's when it really hits you. And that's why you always keep a straight face for the rest if the day. But trust or no trust, you never trust your allies. And having a Lasat on your side is a pretty good thing to threaten. He would help them. Like he had anything better to do.

"Okay, so don't ask what someone's in for. Good to know." Sabine commented.

"How'd you learn that?" Zeb asked.

Ezra rolled up the sleeve to his grey shirt the slightest bit to revile a large burn splotch. "The hard way." Ezra answered, the rest of the crew not covering their surprise very well. "Now." Ezra said, moving right along. "they all always heard up all of the inmates in here. This is where we spend our spare time." Said Ezra, gesturing to the large sixty foot by sixty foot cement room, consisting of metal tables and the occasional barred window, and large barred doors on each side.

"Seems easy enough." Kanan shrugged.

Ezra scoffed, gaining everyone's attention once more. "The guards only break up a fight if it has a weapon. You think surviving in a big locked room with some of the most dangerous criminals on Lothal is easy?" Ezra shook his head free from this as he had been known for running his mouth. "Never mind. When we're not in our cells, on meal, or working, then we're in here. It's like the main room you go to to kill time even though that's all prison is. Killing time."

"What kind of work?" Asked Hera.

"Well I can put good money on your Lasat here getting rock duty. We break a lot of rocks here to make pathways through the market places around Lothal. Usually the strongest prisoners are put on that. Either that or the ones who have ticked off one of the guards. They sometimes like to put the small guys on rock duty just make them suffer." Said Ezra. "There's also cleaning. Mostly the mess hall. But it's mostly a lot of land work. Cutting the grass, ripping off the ivy off the side of the prison. That kind of stuff."

"When does that happen?" Kanan asked.

A loud bell rang throughout the prison, echoing off of the walls, catching all of the inmates attention. It blared another three times before it stopped, the prisoners all stopping what they were doing and going to the barred doors, all lining up. "Right now." Ezra answered.

…

The crew followed Ezra into the line, and out of the room. They all walked out into the hallway, the walls paved with beige coloured bricks. They all lined up along the wall, backs to it, along with all the other prisoners as the guards looked them up and down, pacing and looking them up and down.

Finally one of them spoke. "Jarvis! Conolly! Sternly!" He yelled at the prisoners by last name. "Mess hall. Want it to shine." He assigned them, the two humans and one don't-even-wanna-know were lead off by a guard after they got their task. He then looked to the Ghost crew. "Newcomers, eh? Twi'lek, Mando, mess hall. Delta, take them." He said to two of the guards, them giving a slight nod before grabbing Sabine and Hera.

"Hey!" Said Sabine, resisting, as the guard forced her arm behind her back.

The guard behaving to tighten his grip around her wrists before Ezra whispered to her, "just do it." She looked at him questionably, giving him a slight nod. As she stopped restricting the grip loosened, as he proceeded to lead the two we on off to the mess hall for their work day. She gave a slight grateful look before being led off. Wait, what? Grateful? He must have been hallucinating!

Just then the head guard who had been as singeing the tasks slowly walked up to where Ezra had been standing, Zeb beside him, and Kanan on the other side of Zeb. He looked at Ezra carefully. Then with no warning whatsoever he drew back his arm and swung back, elbowing Ezra with great force into his ribcage. Zeb's eyes widened as the kid held his side and fell agent the wall, letting out a slight cry. "No talking." Said the guard.

Kanan and Zeb looked at Ezra shocked that they would just hurt a child like that with no remorse. They were as cold as the Empire. Kanan and Zeb gave each other a look as the guard kept talking.

"Danahu, Karshun, Blitzku, Malcro, Revar." He said, another guard coming up being him and handing all who's names have been called a pick axe. He then turned to the newcomers once more. "Lasat. We can use you. And you too, Human." He said to Kanan "Morgan. Three weeks in a row. New record." He said, pushing a pitch fork towards him, Ezra just grabbing it, falling slightly with its weight with his newly bruised ribs.

They lead the prisoners out into a secluded part of the prison yard. It was a large outdoor place littered with sandy hot ground. Large boulders lay around the court where other inmates hacking away at the boulders under the nearly unbearable Lothalien sun. Wheelbarrows filled with bits of smashed rock spread across the court, other being pulled every which way to be dumped off my the entrance in one big pile. Guards walked the ground, most just talking to each other and making sure things kept moving along.

"Go on, get to it." Said the guard, walking back through the door to the prison, closing the barred door and locking it behind him.

Kanan and Zeb watched as the other prisoners who were in the line up with them scattered about, lunging their pick axes in the air and having it plunge into the rock. Both Kanan and Zeb gasped as a Rodien collapsed onto the ground.

"Heart stroke." Ezra clarified all to nonchalantly, as he began to walk away. "Follow me." He said, not even turning around.

"Tell me what to do.." Zeb grumbled under his breath as he picked up his axe and followed Ezra, Kanan right behind him.

Ezra got to a large rock, and began whacking away, winching the slightest bit with his side. The Ghost boys noticed this, but said nothing, instead following his lead and began to axe at the rocks. The sun already beginning to take a toll on them.

"So, Dev." Said Kanan, filling the silence, "how long are you in here for? Unless we're not allowed to ask that either." He said, halting the axe at the rock.

Ezra could barely lift the axe, but gave it all he had, nonetheless. "Like you care." He said, not looking up from the Rock he was attacking. "What about you?" Ezra asked. "How long am I going to have to make sure you don't die for?"

"So if I kill you would that mean I'd die, too?" Zeb asked. "Might just be worth it."

Once again Ezra fear flowed, yet his face remained the same. Kanan sighed, he was good at hiding his emotion. "Minimum of two weeks. Empire's out for our heads." He answered.

Ezra hit the rock harder with his axe, "hate the Empire." He said, Kanan could even feel this keeps anger through the force.

"Yea? Who doesn't." Said Zeb. "Back to this whole 'not dying thing', any pointers?"

"Yea, sure." Said Ezra, wiping his forehead. "Okay, so that guard how gave us all our assigned tasks, you know, the one who tried to take one of my ribs as a souvenir? His name's Bronka, runs the show. If he were a bucket head he'd have a orange shoulder." Ezra explained. "Don't get on his bad side. Although I'm not sure he has a good side."

"Noted." Said Kanan. "How is this place for Imperials?"

Ezra sighed as he took and other swipe. "Troopers come in once a week, make sure everything's running smoothly then report it to who's ever in charge of them. If they ever come in more then once in a week, then you know something's wrong. As for rock duty, here's what your going to do,"

"Who made Joiner here in charge?" Zeb asked.

"Do you want to end up like the Rodien over there or not?" Asked Ezra, nodding to the still unconscious red Rodien face down in the dust.

"Talk about another one bites the dust." Mumbled Kanan.

"As I was saying." Said Ezra. "Everyday on rock duty you get a choice, if you take no water, then you get one less hour of work, if you take it, you get one more. Rule number two to surviving. Always. Take. The water. If you try to take the short cut you'll never make it though the day. Got it?"

"Uh, right." Said Zeb, ears going down the slightest at the sight of the Rodien, "water good. Got it."

"Any questions?" Ezra asked.

"Yea." Said Kanan, "is it true you need to look out for the inmates on death row?"

"Got nothin' left to lose." Zeb commented.

Ezra just shrugged, as he took another swing at the rock. "They're not all bad."

…

By the time the water came, Kanan and Zeb couldn't believe that some people actually said no to it. They took there jugs and began to chug them. "Carful." Said Ezra. "Save some for later." He said, walking over and sitting by one of the large rocks, Kanan and Zeb following him as they enjoyed their break.

"So have you really been doing this for three weeks straight?" Kanan asked.

"Remember when I said not to get on Bronka's bad side?" Ezra asked.

"Yea.." Said Zeb.

"Well I'm branded to that side." Said Ezra, taking a sip of his water.

Zeb gave a slight chuckle. They sat resting for a while, all of their muscles crying, the sun making their heads felt like they would explode, before Kanan broke the silence. "How old are you, Kid?" He asked.

"How old are you?" Ezra shot back. Both Kanan and Zeb looked at the kid until he cracked. "Fine. Thirteen. Why?"

"How's a thirteen year old land in prison for four months?" Asked Zeb, shocked.

'If only it were four months.' Ezra thought. One of the guards blew their whistle, and the prisoners around the court began to get up. "Come on." Said Ezra. "Time to get back to work."

Kanan and Zeb couldn't believe how soar they were. "How did you survive three weeks of this?" Kanan groaned, as he was this soar from half a days work. A child half his size enduring three weeks must just be held together by glue at this point.

"I took the water." He answered.

…

By the time they met up with Sabine and Hera the girls didn't look so good either. They were all locked back in the large wreak room they were in earlier that day. As they entered Ezra seemingly disappeared. They didn't pay much mind to it as they approached the girls.

"How did you first day go?" Kanan asked.

"Terrible." Said Sabine.

"Yours?" Asked Hera.

"Not much better." Said Zeb.

"Where's Dev?" Sabine asked.

"Come to think of it, where's everyone?" Hera asked, as they were now alone in the room. The rest of the crew looked around.

"In their cells." Said the guard, from the other side of the barred door. It was Bronka. "Suppose it's time we get you four some." He said, five other guards appearing being him, as he unlocked the door.

The crew was lead though the halls, hands chained being their backs. At one point they were separated, as Hera and Sabine were lead to the girls cell area. Kanan and Zeb walked though the halls, until Kanan was eventually shoved into one, and Zeb was on his own.

He looked around. Though the prison was sturdy and heavily armed, they've escaped the Empire, how hard could a Lothalien prison be?..right? Besides, despite his muscles, Zeb wasn't sure he could break a single pebble again under that outer rim sun! He had no idea how a kid could, either.

"Congratulations, Morgan." Said the guard leading Zeb. "You've got yourself a new roommate."

'Morgan?' Zed thought. "Uh no."

The guard shoved him in the cell, only to see a certain blue haired kid sitting on the top bunk. "You've gotta be kidding me." Said Ezra.

…

A/N, hey guys! This chapter took me ALL. DAY! You guys can that Canadian wether for this very long and very quick update. Yes, if you haven't guessed it, SNOW DAY! Almost a foot! All the schools in the province are closed.

I started this chapter at ten this morning, I am now being called for dinner. I just pulled a Locked up Secrets! Night guys, hope you liked it! Until next time,

-Azilia


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A/N, Hope you like it! :) ….

Ezra heard the large squeaking noise under him as his new 'roomie' laid down on the bed, the springs crying underneath him.

"Just to be clear, I hate this more then you." Ezra said, eyes to the ceiling from where he laid on his top bunk.

Zeb scoffed. "Wanna bet?" he grumbled.

"Yea? What kind of name is 'Zeb' anyway?" Ezra mocked.

"It's short for Garazeb." Zeb spat. "Common name on my home world. What about 'Dev'? Never heard that one before. Lot dumber then Zeb. What's yours short for?"

"Don't know." Said Ezra, as he turned over. He didn't want to talk anymore, especially to some dumb Lasat. This was his only time to be with his thoughts, and boy, did he have a lot.

…..

All too soon the mourning bell blared through the prison, bouncing off of the empty walls. The walls that were driving Sabine crazy. Like a blank canvas that she was just forced to stare at. Dangled in front of her noise, but refusing to grant you your passion. Your creativity. It didn't matter though. And Ezra knew why.

"Kid! Shut. Up!" Zeb Grumbled.

"It's not me!" Ezra said. "It's time to get up." He said, jumping off of his bunk.

"Already?!" Zeb said in disbelief.

"Already." Sighed Ezra.

…

The first cracks of daybreak, and already they were being manhandled, wrists jammed behind them as they were marched down the hallway.

Zeb and Ezra were bonded at the wrist's and marched down the hall. Great way to wake up. Oh, and did I mention it was 4:30 AM? No? Oops….Zeb sure didn't.

There they saw Kanan also being handled by a guard, and pushed down the hall. As they walked, Zeb noticed that the other other inmates, with supervision, were allowed to walk to the mess hall with no restraints, and no guard on their back.

The whole situation leaving Zeb uneasy he turned slightly, carful not to anger the guard, not that he was worried. He could early take him, but he had friends. Lots of friends. There he saw some species he was no familiar. About the same size as him, which was surprising. His eyes were on the sides of head, his head being big and blue, along with the rest of his body. His blue skin was very visible in the bland uniform.

He was bound too.

….

In the mess hall, the boys were let go and shoved into the hall. The mess hall was much bigger then the wreck room. The light from the room came from windows very high up on the walls, near the ceiling. Everything, including the floor, was gray, hard cement. The long rows of tables were metal, and bulged to the ground. Windows on the far side of the hall where other lined with empty trays symbolized that that was where they were to get food.

Zeb and Kanan were set free, rubbing they're now red wrists. They met up instantly after being realist, but some how lost the kid.

"You okay?" Kanan asked immediately. "You holding up okay big guy?"

Zeb snorted. "I'm big. It's prison. I'll live. But you'll never guess who' my roommate is. Who' they got you with'?"

Kanan laughed slightly. He was going to answer but immediately stopped then he saw the only colour in the room, Sabine's hair, coming towards them. Followed by a satisfyingly familiar green.

"I have broken out of imperial Academy before, now hard can prison be?!" Sabine yelled, before even getting fully to the boys.

She gained a few glances from by standards, but ignored them. "Sabine!" Kanan whispered, and also shouted, at her.

"She's ain't wrong Kanan." Said Zeb. "Empire's comin' for us."

"Yes," said Kanan, "I'm aware. But perhaps we can discuss our escape plane when we're not standing six feet away from a guard!" Kanan yelled.

Hera sighed. Kanan almost forgot what that sounded like. He missed it. "I give the Empire two weeks tops to get a transport out here, love. The way Kallus has it out for us." Said Hera, but then lowered her voice.

"But it's clear we need to get out of here. The only time we see each other is meals and wreak room. Both of those times the place is covered with guards. Only other time is yard time, and that doesn't give us enough time. We need to find a way to talk about this where no one could…overhear."

"No whispering!" A guard on the wall yelled at them. Everyone shot each other a look, as they all stated to walk to the other end to the room.

"Well." Said Kanan. "There is one place where we could talk about this, guards aren't as heavy out there, but your not going to like it."

"I'm not liking a whole lot about this place, Kanan." Said Sabine.

"What is it?" Hera interjected.

"Outside, on Rock duty." Kanan continued. "Limited guards, and we can talk about this."

Hera and Sabine gave uneasy looks. "How would we even get clearance for out there?"

"Don't know." Kanan admitted. "They put the strongest out there, and though either of out could break anyone's arms, you don't show it too much." Said Kanan, but Zeb was only half listening.

He was thinking of what the kid had said yesterday. He smiled. "I know how you can get out there." He said, gaining all of the Ghost crews attention. "You've gotta tick off a guard. Bronka to be exact."

…

The crew got to the line and got there food, of you could call it that. Oliver Twist ate better.

They walked blindly through the tables which were full, or full of people who they wanted noting to do with, and vis versa. Finally they came across a empty table. If you don't count the thirteen year old death row kid picking at his bowl of God doesn't even know what.

The crew sat down, only to be immediately met with Ezra saying, "carful." Already? When didn't they have to be carful?

Sabine sighed. "Now what?" She said, placing her tray down, and swinging her leg over the bench, the rest of the Ghost crew following.

"You probably don't want to sit with me. Anyone sees you here with me, it's basically drawing a target on your back." Ezra replied.

"Okay, is there anyone who doesn't hate you?" Kanan asked, half annoyed, half really wanting to know the answer.

He shrugged, looked around the room, then at Zeb, and said "not really, no."

Hera, moving right along, "well, we actually kind of need a target on out backs. Me and Sabine, anyway. We need to get on Bronka's bad side. Any pointers?"

He looked at them like they had literally just said the stupidest thing in the galaxy. Like if somewhere else in the galaxy, and Leia invited Han into her room to 'talk,' and he responded, 'no thanks, I'm kind of tired' he would be tied for second place in stupidness with Hera's question.

"You know, a blaster to the head would be a lot quicker. Why would you possibly WANT to get on Bronka's bad side?! No, in fact, he doesn't have a good side. It's more like just 'bad'. Why do you want to get on his 'bad'?" Ezra ranted.

"Long story short, we need to get out onto the Rock field. Less supervision. You really want the details?" Sabine stated strongly.

"Well.." Said Ezra.

"We tell you, then we'll have to kill you. Oh, and I might just kill you anyway." Said Zeb.

Kanan smirked as he didn't feel fear off of Ezra, but annoyance.

"Okay then." Said Ezra, standing up and walking from the table. He was walking towards the head guard. Bronka.

"Kid, what are you doing?" Kanan hissed.

"Something stupid." He said, barely looking over his shoulder as he said it.

All the crew saw from the table, as Ezra and the guards were on the other side of the room, was Ezra approach the guards, Bronka in particular, but about three others behind him. Ezra say something. The guards yell. Some shoves. And then, before the crew could even flinch, the butt of Bronka's blaster, colliding with Ezra's face. The notion gained half of the cafeteria watching, laughing, some placing bets, and the others not bating an eye.

Ezra fell to the ground, but only for a second, before walking back to the table with a huge bruised mark on his right side of his face, along with a thin stream of blood from his nostril. He barley flinched as much as the crew.

Damn. Was is good thing this kid was so tough, or a bad?

He sat down like nothing had happened.

"What…just…happened?!" Kanan asked in a splutter.

"Just got you two on Rock duty. But trust me," Ezra looked at Sabine and smirked. "You really want the details?"

…

And sure enough, the whole Ghost crew, minus Chop, were walking out into the Rock field, under the blaring Lothalien sun, Ezra a few feet ahead.

Sure as the heat, Sabine and Hera had been handed pick axes without question.

Whatever the kid did worked.

Guess they really didn't want the details.

Ezra was about to walk across the field, figuring that since he got their little 'girl friends' outside, they were most likely talking about something they didn't want him around for. Story of Ezra's life. At least it taught him to be an extraordinary eavesdrop.

"Hey, Kid." Zeb called to him from where the crew standing, bashing rocks, yet somehow all eyes were still on them. "Come 'ere" he said, throwing an arm through the air.

"What? If I don't start beating rocks, they'll start beat something else, if you know what I mean." Joked Ezra, gesturing the a guard.

"Yea, yea." Said Zeb, continuing. "Me and Kanan, how come we were handcuffed this mornin', and no one else'?" He asked, taking a swing at the rocks.

"Yes." Yes Hera. "Me and Sabine were handcuffed this morning too, but no one else.".

"Yea, that's because your new." Said Ezra. "For the first few days, the newbies get handcuffed, just in case their more dangerous them they look. Nothing to worry about." He said, as he turned the opposite direction.

"Hold up a secon', would ya'?" Zeb sighed. "That big one, just smaller then me. Big blue guy. He was cuffed too. He in't new, is he?"

Ezra looked confused a bit, but then a look of realization came over his face. "Oh, yea everyone here just calls him Blue." Said Ezra. "He's, uh.. He's on death row. They always get handcuffed. Spotless record, never steps out of line, Blue. Doesn't matter, though. Bronka swished a fly, and I swear I saw him cry. Doesn't matter if your on death row, though." Ezra said.

"Whoa.." Breathed Sabine. "What'd he do?" She asked.

Hera rolled her eyes. "What Sabine means, is what is he being charged with for being given the death plenty?" She asked.

Ezra scoffed. "Knowing old Blue, being in the wrong place at the wrong time." He said, as he glanced at a guard shooting him a death look. "Gotta go." He said, walking back to a pile or rocks a few years away.

"Hey, Dev?" Zeb Shouted over, Ezra turning around and walking backwards, still facing Zeb. "Why were you handcuffed?"

…

A/N, damn. That's all I can say. Damn. This update took WAY too long! In Another life will be updated next week, and Hiding in a Ghost the next!

Goodnight Guys! Sorry it took so long, and tell me of you like it! Last day of school tomorrow before March break! And I've gots nothing to do! Oh! Let's have a fanfiction mixer! :D

Bye guys! And REMEMBER: Spaghetti is the best food EVER!

-Azilia


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N told you so! DANG! I just read my last chapter, I face palmed SO HARD at the spell it errors. …I guess that's what happens when you proof read a chapter at 11 o'clock on a school night…I'll do better!

….

"Hey, Dev?" Zeb shouted over, Ezra turning around and walking backwards, still facing Zeb. "Why were you handcuffed?"

"Well," said Ezra, "I'm a thirteen year old kid on death row, I disturbed the peace, and committed grand larceny, as just about every shop keeper on Lothal ratted me out when I was caught, and when I turn fifteen their going to kill me. Also my parents were taken by the Empire, and I cry at night a lot, though I wound admit it. Oh, also my name is Ezra Bridger." Yup. That's what Ezra said, because honesty was always the best policy, right?

YEAH RIGHT!

Ezra shrugged. "Like I said, everyone hates me." He said, turning around and walking away. "And tell them to drink the water!" He yelled, without turning around, causing the two males to smirk.

But in actuality, that was a weak excuse, and they knew it. But there was no time to question it, they had an escape to plan.

"Ugh." Sabine sighed. "How long have we been doing this?" She wined.

"Oh, about thirty seconds." Said Zeb, taking a swing.

"Can we focus please?" Said Hera. "Kanan, any ideas of how to get out of here?" She asked. "Kanan?" She asked again, at the Jedi off somewhere else. Lucky.

"Huh?" He asked.

She smiled. "How are we getting out of here?"

"The kid." Kanan said, only half there.

"What?" Asked Sabine.

"The kid?" Asked Zeb. "Wha's the kid have to do with this?"

"The kid." Kanan repeated. He then snapped from his daze and looked to his crew. "What's the vents like in this place?"

…..

"You..what?" Ezra asked, sitting with his back to a rock pile as he was on water break, when the Ghost crew came up to him.

"Look kid," said Kanan, as the rest of the crew stood over him, as he sat, and they stood. In all fairness, though, if he was standing, he wouldn't exactly be towering over anybody. "We just need you to go through the vents some time a night, you're the only one who can fit. We need to find out when an 'Agent Kallus' is coming. And also when the next inspection is. It could go a long way." He said, but Ezra stopped listening at 'Kallus'.

"Wait." Ezra stopped him, "Kallus? Agent Kallus? What do you want with him?" He asked. They were about to answer when he stopped them. "Wait, what am I even saying?! No. No! You want me to go through the vents? Do you know how much trouble I could get into for even having this conversation? Why would I stick my neck out for a bunch of strangers?"

"Kallus." Sabine stated simply. "Because it would mess with Kallus." That seemed to catch his attention. "Look, kid. It's pretty clear that no one in this place likes you all too much. What do you have to loose? Besides, It's not like you can get them to hate you more, do you really want to loose the only allies you have in this place?"

"Is that a threat?" He asked calmly.

"That's the truth." She said.

He held his stare for a long while before sighing. "Ironically, you guys are going to get me killed, you know that."

"Counting in it." Smirked Zeb.

'Ironically' through Kanan.

….

That night at dinner Ezra sat quietly at the end of an empty tables, arms on the tables, playing with his food, as he was met with the Ghost crew, flinching as they sat down as the shook him from his daze of thought.

"Relax, Kid. It's just us'" said Zeb.

"Sorry," said Ezra, shaking his head from his thoughts. "Just not used to have people sitting with me." He said, the rest staying quiet.

Ezra smirked at the soar crew, rubbing their soar limbs. "How have you done three weeks in a row like this?!" Zeb asked.

Ezra just gave a sad smile and looked to his food. "Had worse." He said. 'A lot worse..' He thought, back in his daze.

He was so hungry. Just, so hungry. He swiped the fruit, but he was slower that day. He hadn't eaten in six days. He reflexes were as slow as he was hungry. He had tried to swipe the fruit, he could barley think. He was just..hungry.

He had tried to swipe the fruit, but then his wrist was grabbed harshly. "You've stolen from me long enough, boy!" The shop keeper yelled, his eyes crazy and wild, as he then shouted 'thief' as loud as he could, as Ezra's empty stomach sunk so far down it hurt. It had caught the attention of several troopers, and an Agent who had been supervising.

They had been trying to catch him for years. And this was their chance. Just as he broke from the shop keepers iron grip, it began to rain, and he began to run down the darkening streets.

At one point he had tripped over a rock in the path and came crashing down. He flinched back as a stray trooper was just about to pound the butt of the gun to the face when the trooper was shot with the Stun setting of a blaster. He looked up to see a man, a pony tail and odd facial hair, he wore green with an odd shoulder armor. "Thanks." Ezra said.

"Don't mention it." The man said, as Ezra continued to run.

He made his way to the building tops, troopers still hot on his trail. He got an odd…warning feeling, as he was completely blind sighted with a hard gun jabbed into hid side, with full force, as the force sent him flying four feet, and tumbling off of the building like a drop of the rain that was everywhere.

He was badly wounded but kept running.

Just keep running.

The rain affected his sight, as a group of troopers came from the corner. One grabbed him, but he slipped from his grip, and tripped him, sending the trooper falling to the ground. Another one shot at him, but Ezra grabbed another trooper and pushed him in front of the gun as he continued to run.

It was then he felt the burning hot electricity corse through his small body, as he shouted out in pure pain, before crashing down to the ground.

He had never seen a bow rifle before. Had never been stricken down by one, either. Guess there's a first time for everything.

He tried to get up to run again, when he felt a knee to his back, pinning him down, and he felt very crowded, as he wrists were bound, as he cried out. His face pressed to the mud, all he could see was white boots.

He was forced up to face the agent. Even in the pouring rain he held a smirk. He said in a calm, cocky voice. "You have been difficult to catch, young one. We have special planes for you."

"Nice side burns." Said Ezra.

"Funny." He commented. "A scenes of humor never lasts where your going."

Ezra looked to the man, pain all over, as two troopers held him tightly. "We'll see about that."

"Kid!" Kanan yelled, as Ezra shot up a foot and cleared his mind of his thoughts. "Huh? Wha…uh, sorry." He said, shaking his head. "What?"

The crew gave him odd looks, as Hera spoke. "We were asking if your ready for tonight."

Ezra somehow looked them all dead in the eye at once. "Oh, I'm ready. But let's just get one thing clear, I'm not doing this for you. I've lasted this long in here with no alias, I'm doing this for one reason only. Agent Kallus."

And just like that the bell blared. Guess it was time to do something stupid.

….

"Now?" Asked Zeb impatiently, as he paced in the cell, as Ezra lounged on his bunk.

"Not yet. Relax, would you? It's not like your going in there." Said Ezra.

"Yea? Well there's a lot on the line here, okay?" Zeb said frustratedly.

Ezra smirked. "Your worried about me." He teased.

"Wha?" Said Zeb, and then scoffed. "Yea right."

"You know," said Ezra cockily, "I bet that if I die in there, you'd cry."

Zeb rolled his eyes. "Your not gonna die. Stop being so dramatic."

Ezra laughed. "Yea, you'd totally cry if I died."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid." Said Zeb, as the lights all shut off, the only light now the red emergency lights in the halls.

"Now." Said Ezra, hopping off of the bunch, and going over to the vent, Zeb prying it off of the wall. "See you on the other side." Ezra said, giving him a salute.

"Hey, kid?" Said Zeb.

"Yea?"

"Don't die, okay?" He smirked, Ezra smiling as he disappeared into the vent.

…..

Ezra crawled through the vents, being as quiet as possible as he made his way above the guards break room. The bums all joking about, smoking, playing cards and gambling with credits and chewing gum, complaining about the graveyard shift.

He crawled a few more years ahead until he was directly over Bronka's office, a few guards scattered about as he sat behind his desk, polishing a gun.

"I just got word from Agent Kallus," he said to the room. "Really straying for those new ones. Apparently their rebels, the beaded one is even a good for nothing force user, if you can believe it!"

"Rebels?!" Ezra breathed in amazement.

"Kallus says he'll be down in three days, make sure we haven't screwed up, lost his 'prize prisoners.' If they got anything to hide, they'll find it on three days time, so be ready." He told his men. "Says that he can get the transport down here in twenty days time, because if a recent 'delay' with transports. Said two weeks, but no! We're just a outer rim planet! Nothing like this would happen on Naboo. If you ask me, their just dumping their problems here. We're a prison, not a strange unit!" He ranted, but Ezra wasn't listing anymore.

He had all he needed.

But just then he had a familiar feeling of fear.

A gun was raised to the vent. "Who's up there?!" He spat.

Ezra hadn't felt his stomach sink this much since the shop keeper grabbed him.

…..

Zeb immediately knew something was wrong when all of the lights snapped back on in the prison, as did Kanan, when the prison was met with tired and angered moans all around.

"Pipe it!" A guard yelled at them, as Zeb stood at the bars of his cell, trying to figure out what was was going on.

That's when he saw a smirking Ezra being marched down the hallway with two guards on his side's. He looked to Zeb, and gave him a wink. Zeb didn't understand as this didn't seem like at all a win.

After Ezra was marched out of the hall, the lights snapped back off, and red illuminating the white walls.

It was then that Zeb saw the white piece of folded paper on the hall floor from where the kid had walked. Zeb looked to make sure the coast was clear, before stretching his arm from between the bars and snatching it.

He unraveled it and read it by the red light.

' _Kallus and troops coming for inspection in 3 days. You've got exactly 20 days before a transport gets here to get you guys, so do whatever your plotting._

 _-Dev_

 _P.s, quit your crying, didn't die. '_

Zeb laughed at the note.

Him nor the Ghost crew would see Ezra for the next three days.

…

All nighter completed! :D

-Azilia


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

…

The first day was oddly quiet. There was no snarky kid at their side, and yet it just felt wrong. Like something was missing. The second was pure worry, though no one admitted it, they had no idea what had happened to the kid, nor did they really want to.

And the third day? Well, the third day they had work to do.

Kallus walked down the hall slowly, arms behind his back, and a smirk on his lips, as the troopers trotted behind him. His shoes echoed off of the empty walls as he looked to Zeb, behind the bars. He just stood there, on the other side, watching him.

"Enjoying the view?" The lasat mocked.

"More then you know, lasat. I just can believe there are any of you beasts left." He said, smiling wickedly, as he absently stroked his bo- rifle. Zeb's fist's clenched. "Can't do anything, can you?" the agent said from the other side of the cage. He turned and continued to walked down the hall. "search him." He commanded, as he walked down to Kanan's cell, giving him the same slow treatment, as he walked down to the girl's hall.

He stopped before he left, turning only halfway to see the Jedi in the corner of his eye. "and I saw your little friend. The small blue haired child. Doesn't look too good."

Kanan's fists for some reason clenched. It's not like he cared about the kid or anything, but he was still threatening a kid! A child, for force sakes! That's about as low as it gets. But they had also threatened him, a child, just to gain an alie. Was he no better than this Imperial agent?

"Don't you dare hurt him, Kallus. I'm warning you." Kanan spat.

The agent chuckled as he walked down the hall, wicked laughter bouncing off the bars. "It wouldn't make much of a difference, with what he's got coming."

"What are you planning, Kallus?! Stay away from him, he's just a kid." Yelled Kanan.

"That's the problem." He said. "We can't legally kill him yet." Kallus sighed, ignoring Kanan's shouted questions as he ordered the troopers to search his cell for any plans of an escape, as he calmly walked down the hall and out of the cell block.

"He's just a kid.." Whispered Kanan.

….

On the forth day the Ghost crew had reported for Rock Duty, their own silence deafening, as they met in the yard.

"The inspection went good." Said Kanan, breaking it at last. "They didn't find anything, we've got seventeen days before they get their transport out here, so-"

"Kanan." Sighed Sabine, "can we please just get to the loth-cat in the room? The kid is gone, and it's on us." She said, the rest staying quiet.

"She's right." Said Hera. "We need to find Dev, love."

"Found him." Said Zeb, gesturing over to the two new guards leading out Ezra into the courtyard. Or, what was left of him.

His eyes back and his face covered in drying blood, bruises and scrapes littered his face as he was handed a pick axe and sent on his way, as he walked up to the Ghost crew. "Did Kallus find anything?" Was the first thing he asked.

Wait..what?! This kid looked the equivalent to 'some assembly required', and his first concern was the Ghost crew? …?

This look passed all of the Ghost crews faces, as none of them said a word. "Well?" Ezra asked, brining them all back to Lothal.

"Nothing." Hera said, quizzed. "He didn't find out anything."

"Good." Said Ezra, as Kanan looked to him, saying what everyone else was thinking.

"What happened to you?!" Said Kanan in a frantic, frustrated stutter, as he grabbed Ezra's face in his hand and looked at him, the others gawking.

He pulled out of his grip, and looked at the others as if nothing had happened. "Relax." He said, brightest blue eyes you've ever seen rolling in his young teenage head. But when he looked again, he saw the true concern in there faces. "I keep forgetting how new you are." Ezra said. "How surprised you are. I got off easy. I was caught in the head of the prisons vent, after hours, after lockup, listing to privet conversations! _I_ would have put me in solitary and given me the strap every hour on the hour!"

He expect end to be met with at least a snicker, but not even Zeb smirked the slightest bit. "That's what they did to you?" Sabine asked quietly, as Ezra just kind of shrugged and took a swing at the rocks with his axe.

"I got off easy." Ezra said. "Most people he found like that he would have shot. It was a suicide mission, that just happened to have a pretty good chance of working."

"Wait!" Said Hera. "Your telling us that you let us put you in a mission that you very well knew could end up getting your killed?! Dev, it's like you've got a death wish."

"Or just not a lot to lose." Said Kanan, studying Ezra, who looked at none of them but the rocks he was smashing with the axe he could barely hold. "So why didn't he take the shot..?"

As Kanan then took a swing at the rocks, after seeing the guards looking at them warily, signaling the others. The guard turned and all attention was then back on Ezra. Oh, joy.

"Hey, kid." Kanan continued. "What was that Kallus was shouting at me yesterday? He said that he couldn't legally kill you yet. What's that about?"

Ezra let the tip of his axe drop, him still holding the wooden tip as he looked at the crew annoyed…or was it worry? As if they were pressing too hard. As if they were about to find something out. Something..bad. "Why are you so interested?! You don't see me asking a bunch of questions! And believe me, I've got a lot! About what you were doing almost crash landing on top of a school." He said, as the crew's faces dropped.

Ezra looked at them. "Yea, you didn't know I knew that, _did you_? About how a bunch of TIEs took you down, how you tired to fly right through them. Why you almost flattened the only none-imperial school in capital city. How classes were in session and you missed it by, what was it? Five yards? Was it even that much? Oh, or how about the fact that your only here for a couple weeks, or why an imperial agent, or the Empire for that matter is so interested in you. How practically every imperial seems to know your face.

How about the fact that you were just locked up with no charge? No, you must have a long going history with disobeying with the Empire, which I can respect. Or how about how it was so important for me to go in that vent in the first place, to find out when your little Imperial friends were going to come to check on you, because you're all just so important. Or maybe the fact that I had to swing it for all of you guys to get on rock duty, huh?

So you could all come out here and plot without guards listening in." Once again the crew's heads shot up during Ezra's rant. "Didn't think that I caught in to that either, did you? About how you're all plotting some big, secret plan to do who knows what behind the guards, and my, backs.

There's a lot of things I could be questioning you on every second of the day, because frankly, your a lot more shady then me right now, but I don't, so maybe you could lay off the interrogations for a little bit, and all grant you the same curtesy. Okay? Okay." He said, silencing the Ghost crew completely, as most of them forgot how to form words, and Ezra went right back to his rocks.

Whoa. What was this kid hiding? …Or were they just hiding more?

…..

The rest of that day was spent in silence. The crew knew they needed to plan on how to get off of this hell planet, but none of them could really think, let alone plan a prison break. The only sound that they heard for the next few hours was the pounding of the rocks, and the occasional fainting of some dumb guy passing out from lack of water.

At dinner the just picked at their food, Ezra no where to be seen. The kid was good at disappearing. He must have had to do it a lot.

Later that night when they were in their cells, Zeb just couldn't stop himself from starring. The kids eyes were blood shot, probably from still adjusting to the light. His eyes were dark and hollow, but still electric blue, his left eye swollen and purple, his face scratched and bruised.

"Can I help you?" He said impatiently as Zeb studied him.

"You know, you didn' have to blow up at us like that." Zeb growled as he sat down on his bed.

"Yea? Well you didn't have to just keep..pushing, okay?" Ezra said, frustrated.

Zeb just scoffed to himself.

"What?" Ezra demanded, trying to make his small frame intimidating.

Zeb just snorted at him. "It must have been a really long time since you had someone to push you, hasn't it? Someone to annoy the heck out of you. Someone to _care_."

Ezra just rolled his eyes as he climbed to his bed. "You don't care." He said.

"Why do you always say that?!" Said Zeb, annoyed that that was the kids catch phrase.

Ezra just gave a sick laugh. "This isn't a rule, more like a fact, it's prison. No one _does_ care."

Zeb just rolled his eyes. What does this kid even think he knows about being alone? Truly alone? After Lasan fell, Zeb had literally no one. It was his lowest point. Then he found the crew, just a crabby old droid, decades behind its generation, an all too hopeful Twi'lek, and a washed up old Jedi-drop-out. And they cared. This kid doesn't know anything. He just pretends like he does.

And that was what Zeb though.

That is until late that night, the red light from the hallway spilling into into the room from the bars, he heard quiet, muffled cries from above him.

Hum. I guess the questions just got too much.

"Didn't die." Ezra whispered. "..yet."

…

A/N WAY quicker update, my other stories will be updated first. Sorry! Made trade team (!) Duke club. School is literally killing me. X-x love ya, Fanficers! Okay, until next time,

-Azilia


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

….

Ezra Bridger, the thirteen year old boy in the Lothalien Capital City Penitentiary, hopped down from the top bunk and onto the hard cement floors, unaware of the former lasat honor guard of Lasain, before it fell, along with over ninety percent of its people, was watching him from his bottom bunk. He searched him, studied him, for any possible signs of crying.

Zeb and heard him last night, lied awake with his tired eyes open just hearing the sounds of a scarred little boy in the bunk above him cry himself to sleep, with what Zeb could only assume was the first time.

And so he watched Ezra for any signs of the scarred little kid he heard last night, but found none. His faced was just a simple blank slate. It made Zeb wonder, just a little bit, of how he could cover up that so well, but he wondered even more, what else he could be hiding, just so, _so_ well.

And so he watched the brightest blue eyes you've ever seen slowly look towards him, and udder, in the _cockiest_ tone you've ever heard, "Enjoying the view?"

But then the tiny, iddy bitty adult in Zeb vanished, as it never stayed long, and a small, evil grin spread on his face as he realized he could play this to his advantage, _big time._ Why not get back at the kid? He didn't need to blow up at them like that the other day, this kid needed to be taken down a few pegs, and..Zeb just happened to appoint himself the job.

"Oh," Zeb replied. "Not much, Dev. Just a cry baby. Scarred of the dark?"

He watched Ezra's face pale. He remained speechless for a second, as if all of the sarcasm was knocked out of him, before spluttering, "You _can't_ tell anyone! I mean, uh-" he sighed in defeat, Zeb had him cornered, and they both knew it. "Zeb, you can't tell anyone about the, uh, the 'thing'. That will get you killed in prison."

Zeb just laughed. "Soo, by me not telling anyone about your fear of the dark-"

" _I am not afraid of the-"_

"Then that qualifies as saving your life, correct?"

"What?!" Said Ezra, "No-"

"DEV MORGAN CRIES AT NIGH-" Zeb began shouting.

"Okay! Okay!" Ezra surrendered. " _Fine,_ you saved my life, happy?"

Zeb gave a smile so wicked that even Kallus himself would stare. "Oh, we're gonna have some fun, kid."

…..

Having the kid back was not as much as a significant change as the crew thought it would be. At breakfast he would either talk their ears off, or keep to himself, and on rock duty he usually just kept to the sidelines and tried to stay out of Bronka's peripheral vision.

But, nonetheless, the crew did find it awfully strange, and amusing, seeing the kid carrying Zeb's breakfast tray for him the table.

"Got yourself a slave now, Zeb?" Asked Sabine as they sat down, clearly amused.

"Somethin' like that." Scoffed Zed, as Ezra tried to keep out of sight, never wanting to not be seen more.

Though they all laughed along, the kid was still shrouded in mystery, the thoughts of Kallus' words still swarming Kanan's mind, and the annoying little tingling in the back of Zeb's mind of repeatedly thinking of what Ezra had said to himself last night when he was, for the first time, venerable. The word 'yet' refusing to leave him alone.

"Why are you carrying Zeb's tray, Dev?" Hera asked kindly, over the laughs of her crewmates, looking at the slowly healing face of the young boy, his eye still swelled and purple, his cheek still bruised, and his clothing still covering the worst of what Bronka had doled out to him for being caught in his vent, the question still lingering of why he hadn't taken the shot.

Before Ezra could lie his way out of it, or even open his mouth, Zeb chimed in with, "What? Nobody can do anything nice for old Zeb once an' a while? I don't deserve to be a little spoiled?" He asked, as the others chuckled, Sabine reached over the table and pinching his cheek as if he were a pouting child in the market way, adding a, "Aw, poor Loth-kitten!"

And that was the end of that. For now…

…

"Really?" questioned Zeb, "You're going to let me break my own rocks? After I saved your life?"

Ezra scowled at him, as he pounded the rocks. Zeb was really milking this thing. Honestly he was far madder at himself, spending the entire day in his head ridiculing himself for being so weak. For just being a scarred kid in prison. For not wanting to die. For wanting his mommy and daddy like a four year old…like a seven year old. For not being able to answer the questions that surrounded his mind. For being scarred of the masked men who ran his planet into a firm dictatorship. Ezra vowed right then and there to never cry again. And to never give anyone the upper hand. He learned repeated times in the past how coasty that could be.

It wasn't until he was being called over to the Ghost crew that he even realized that Zeb had left his side. He looked down to his pile of now-rubble, and walked over to the crew, looking slightly up to them as they were all taller.

"Hey, Dev." Called Kanan, glancing over to the guards slightly. "We've got a few more questions for you."

"Can't wait." Said the teen, in a less than enthusiastic manner.

"Ships," Hera began, as Ezra cut her off.

"You'll need to be a little more specific." He rolled.

"Modified VCX-100 light freighter, seen more action then you have in your life, has taken on everything from bounty hunters, to entire imperial fleets. That specific enough for you, kid?" Sabine intervened.

Ezra's stare never wavered, as he emotionlessly answered, "You'll need to be a little more specific then 'Modified VCX-100 light freighter'."

Kanan smirked a bit, but only to himself, as he stepped in, knowing this would be a long enough battle. "It's our ship, the Ghost. We don't know what happened to it after we were brought in. You have any ideas of where it could be?"

He starred at them for a full minuet before answering. "You were flying it when those TIEs took you down, right?"

"Yea." Zeb clarified.

"Then it was part of the evidence to incriminate you." Ezra said, "it would probably be in the big storage garage that they use to store most of the getaway vehicles used in a crime, so if anyone starts sniffing around, they have probable cause to have you confined. There's a bunch of stuff in there, speeders, ships, I've only seen it once. But once they're in the clear, the guards, and Bronka himself usually take them and sell them on the black market. Ever wonder why Lothal has so many low lifes? Because when the people get out they have no credits, and no means to get off of this planet, they get stuck here, go back to crime to try to back to their home worlds and families, get caught, and it starts all over again."

The crew looked shocked. "And they just get away with it?" Asked Sabine.

Ezra looked to the crew, this time you could read, if you looked just close enough, a bit of sadness. "Every. Single. Time. Anything else?"

"Yea.." Said Hera, a little dazed, handing Ezra an old blue print. "Have you seen this droid anywhere? He's part of our crew."

Ezra skimmed the plans, before looking to them. "And old C1-10P droid. He was with you when you were caught?"

"Sadly." Zeb said in annoyance.

"They do the same thing with droid's as they do with ships. You're droids probably in one of the storage lockers too, at the far end of the prison, strictly off limits to inmates. But with your old run down droid? He'd been stripped down and sold for parts."

"When will they do that?" Sabine asked, trying to brush off the idea of how this kid had so many streets smarts, as he probably wouldn't be let out after dark, what with strict parents and the Empire's curfew.

"Yea, when?!" Zeb said excitedly, resulting in an elbow to the side from Hera. On the bright side she could have used the axe!

"Probably after the Empire comes to get you. They won't need any more probable cause to keep you here if your already gone, so they'll have no more use to keep storing it, plus they can make a quick credit." Ezra said, looking back to the crew as he had noticed his eyes had fallen to the ground. "Anything else?" He asked.

"Yea." Pondered Kanan, "is there any way you could find out which storage garage's they're being kept in?"

"Well," said Ezra, forgetting who he was talking to, "that knowledge would be kept in one of the filing cabinets in the guards break room. Why-..Oh no." Sighed Ezra.

"Oh yes." Grinned Sabine.

…

The plan was relatively ingénues, if it wasn't absolutely crazy.

Because of Ezra's little excursion the last time to get what the Ghost crew wanted, theirs, along with half of the other cell blocks air vents have been sealed off (making the Ghost crew, and Ezra, less than popular.) The only ones remaining due to aliens who breathe other types of air via the air system in the prison.

Kanan, just a few minutes earlier, had used the force to get the keys off of a guard's belt. Now I know what you're thinking, why in Lothal's name didn't they just run for it?! Answer: Big walls, Big guard towers, Big flashing lights, No way to get off this rock, Oh, and, blasters. Lots and lots of blasters.

After Kanan nabbed the keys from Karshun's belt, he waited by his cell bars, and waited for Hera to pass by his cell as her and the rest of the women were transported to the other side of the prison, where their cells were located. He waited for Hera to pass, being escorted by a guard. As they passed Kanan quickly, in one swift motion, reached his arm out of the bars and hooked the keys to Hera's belt.

As Hera passed Ezra and Zeb's cell, she nonchalantly grazed her hip where the keys were loosely dangling and had them drop to the floor, right outside of their room, as Zeb reached his long arm out from between the bars, taking the keys from the floor.

Now all they had to do was wait.

….

A/N, AZILIA IS NOT DEAD! Honestly, I just took a 'quick' break to study for my exams..hee hee, then, um, I got kind of distracted…as in I had my birthday(!) then I went to Ottawa, then to Alberta, then to Newfoundland, and then I tried to make this chapter, and it deleted..TWICE!…SUPER QUICK UPDATE! I'm going to try to do it tomorrow so it's still fresh in your mindhole! Then it's straight to my other stories! Like the final chapter to In Another Life, the Hiding In a Ghost! Again, so sorry for the delay! I WILL do better; it was your constant reviewing that got me back on track! Okay, 3AM, so I really hope you liked it! DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! ;)

Until next time,

-Azilia


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

In retrospect, simply waiting for the lights to go out and midnight to strike was an easy task. But add an impatient and curious teenager with a short-tempered Lasat, and it may as well been a twenty five to life prison sentence.

"You do realize this is prison, right?" Ezra growled, still not completely sure why he was doing this. He was all for sticking it to the Empire, but sticking his neck out this far? Only someone crazy would do that for a bunch of strangers. Guess you can just call him certifiably insane.

"Really?" Said Zeb, watching the thirteen year old pace from the red emergency lights on the outside of the cell bars that go on every time its lights out. "I have no idea what we'd do without ya', kid." He rolled.

"What I _mean,_ fur ball, is why exactly do you need to know where your ship is? You don't really need it now. Wait; let me guess, you can't tell me."

"What do you know," called Zeb from the bottom of the bunk, waiting till the plan could commence, as the lights have gone out but they were still waiting of everyone to be asleep. "He's not as dumb as he looks." Zeb finished.

There was a moment of silence, which Zeb enjoyed, before Ezra spoke up, his voice quieter this time. "You're planning something. Something big, I know it."

"I wouldn't sniff around too much, kid. That's how people get hurt." Said Zeb annoyed.

Ezra scoffed, "Yea, and what would you know about people getting hurt?"

Zeb didn't answer, so Ezra continued. "You have me doing all these crazy things, all leading up to a big plan, and you won't even tell me what! I think I've earned _some_ trust by now. For force sake, I've gotten _gangs_ to trust me quicker than you."

"Okay then kid," said Zeb, finally speaking up. "Then just one question. You trust us?"

Even in the darkness the kid held his stare. "Point taken."

…

A little over an hour had passed and Ezra found himself being shaken awake, as he had fallen asleep on the floor.

He pushed the large beast like hand off of his arm as he sat up and looked to Zeb. "Midnight?" Ezra groaned.

"Midnight." Zeb replied as Ezra stood up.

"Okay, so remind me how, again, am I supposed to break into the guard room when it's full of storm trooper wannabe's?

Zeb smirked a bit as he handed Ezra the ring with multiple keys on it. "You'll figure something out."

" _That's_ reassuring." Said Ezra as he reached through the bars and began jamming keys in, looking for the right one.

Once he did, the door screeched open in a rusted scream, as Ezra gave one last look at Zeb, him giving Ezra the smallest little nod before he left, screeching the door closed in case any of the night guards came strolling by and the cell door wide open.

Ezra secretly wished that Kanan's cell was on the way, rather than the oppose direction. Ezra didn't know why, but as nervous as he was in the pit of his stomach, he just felt like seeing him would help. Out of the Ghost crew, he felt an odd…connection? It was just plain weird and he wasn't even going to try and explain it, not even in his head.

He slowly and quietly stepped through the empty cement hallway, every step brining him farther and farther away from his cell. The faint red lights streaked down the walls and onto the floors, slipping through the bars of each cell and letting Ezra look at the sleeping forms in each bed, the soft snores echoing in the empty prison, Ezra being too aware that if any one of them woke up, his cover would be blow, along with everything else.

He crept through the halls, no one thankfully waking up, as he turned left and found the door leading to the next level.

Being in such a low budget prison on an outer rim planet had its perks, as the still relied on keys to grant accesses instead of the key cards that the Empire used. He fished around for a bit before finding the right one, and opening the door.

Ezra held his breath as he closed the door, the lights being dimly one in the stair case as well, as he dashed up them, and found himself in some place rather unfamiliar.

Never before had he, or anyone else, been on the upper level before, strictly for guards only, with no restrains, roaming free as if they had never done a crime in their life.

He smirked a bit at this as he crept down the well lit hallway lined with doorways, Ezra's smirk falling dead hard as he heard muffled voices and laugher coming from behind each door.

It seemed so lively, almost like Ezra wasn't even in prison at all.

The sound of a door opening behind him brought him back. This was prison, he was no free, the world was not alright, and he had a job to do. Plain and simple.

Ezra quickly jumped when he heard the door open, and quickly hid behind a filing cabinet by the wall. Ezra had never been too grateful of his small form, but it was times like these he didn't mind.

He hugged his knees to his chest and didn't dare breath, as the two men walked right past him, unnoticed.

As soon as they passed he got up and began running, he made a quick left and found himself starring at the break room entrance.

His heart sunk when he heard voices on the other side. It sunk even deeper when he heard Bronka's.

"Okay, okay," Ezra breathed. "I need to get into the break room occupied by guards, get into the filing cabinet, look at the files, see where the ship is being held, I dint know why I'm doing this, and get out unnoticed, wonderful."

Ezra's eyes wandered to the wall. There was a section of the wall that was missing, three feet by three feet roughly, it looked like a machine or cabinet used to be there. But all with all the budget cuts that were going on lately; they had to start cutting back.

No wonder Bronka was sucking up so much to the Empire.

A small smirk reappeared on Ezra's face, though it covered the fear. If he pulled this off, then he'd be a kid to not just outsmart troopers and shop owners, but get to add prison guard to his list. But if it didn't work, let's just say Bronka might 'boost up' his age on his forms to fifteen, if you know what I'm saying.

"Well, go big or go home..or, well, cell, but, whatever." said Ezra, looking down the corridor and finding a small potted plant. He dragged it over to the small opening in the wall, not knowing why on Lothal was there a potted plant in the halls of a prison.

It was most likely a gift from one of guardsmen to their wife, and they were just hiding it there. They do it all the time. Heck, two months back, when Ezra was still pretty new to the prison, a guard left an engagement ring here so his girl wouldn't see it, but it fell out of his pocket during his rounds. Young guy, but on the bright side he was the only guard that the prisoners all liked, when no other guard was looking he'd always joke around with everyone, didn't see himself as better then the prisoners. If someone ratted on someone or screwed someone over, and they just happened to get a shove to the side or a punch to the face, he'd look the other way instead of throwing them in solitary, because he knew he had it coming.

One of the reasons he was so well liked was because as close a relationship he had with the inmates, he wasn't dirty, couldn't be bought. Long story short he was freaking out looking for it, and even the smallest rock could get you off this planet, in style, when you finally get out. Prison was about to go on full lock down when a guy with five days left on his sentence, could have really used the money, didn't even try to hid it, just walked right up to him and said 'you dropped this.'

Ezra didn't know why he was thinking so much of this guard, but it was a weird tingling in the back of his mind, he couldn't explain it, but he just couldn't stop thinking of Reidez.

Ezra's heart quickened when he saw him walking down the hallway. It was almost like he…knew he was coming. "Impossible." Ezra whispered, he walked past Ezra's hiding place not noticing him.

Ezra felt bad for doing this to the only nice guard in…well, Lothal, but nonetheless, he had a job to do, swiping Reidez's bulky walky-talky from his belt as he past. Ezra's heart didn't stop racing until he turned the corner. Nice guy or not, he saw Ezra, he would most likely shoot first and ask questions later. I mean, this was unheard of, there was no protocol for this, no one had ever done this before.

"Well, on the bright side, if I get caught I'll be a legend."

Ezra clipped on the walky-talky, yet another outdated technology the prison relied on. Ezra was about to commence his plan, but, as usual, curiosity and plain nosiness stopped him as he heard Bronka's voice over the open radio.

" _This is Samsus Bronka_ ," the static over the radio spit out as it continued, " _the arrangements are being made, is everything in place for the exaction of Gungi 'Blue' Robbiesto_?"

"No.." Ezra gasped. "Not old Blue…"

" _Yes sir._ " replied an unfamiliar voice. " _Everything is in place.._ "

" _I want specifics, Delta._ " Bronka replied impatiently. " _Half of the guards are listening and they don't ever know that the charge is!"_ He said annoyed.

" _Right, right, Gungi, most know him as Blue, though, will be executed tomorrow by open blaster fire, he has served six years and will finally be put to death for the murder of five year old Emerald Monestis, species: human."_

Ezra jerked in a forward motion and threw the radio to the ground. He held his breath though he didn't realize it, his mind racing. Old Blue, it had to be wrong. Everyone knew Blue, and surprisingly, with all of the gangs and rivalries that went on inside of the walls, Blue was universally liked, it was the only thing in the entire prison everyone just universally agreed on. He was a good guy, though no one ever heard him speak a word.

But the bottom line, he shouldn't have cared this much, he didn't know him as well as the others... "It's just..." Ezra breathed to the air, "I thought that...that maybe something, _someone,_ could be genuinely good. Even in prison, even on death row, even on Lothal, someone could be…good."

But he still had a job to do.

He quickly picked up the walky-talky from the ground, pushing all thoughts aside, as he pressed the small red button on the side and continued to listen.

" _Attention all responding guards,_ " Bronka's voice reclaimed Ezra's ears, " _The exaction of Blue will, as protocol, be exsiccated by the Empire, but everyone one knows that, I just got word that because they will be comin' tomorrow anyways, they're apparently going to be stopping by for a 'surprise inspection', total karabast, I know, but they caught wind of that street rat hearing about us talkin' about that damn Ghost crew and are getting nervous, so they're sending over some troopers and a couple of cadets. Since the exsiccation's taking place in the morning, they want to cover all of their bases, so they're comin' in the middle of the freakin' night! All guards, you have ten minutes to get your sections ready, they'll be here in fifteen…."_ Ezra heard before switching it off.

"Okay, fifteen is my new least favourite number!" He cursed, now raking his brain as he now had to sneak back to his cell with guards _and_ the Empire on their way. "Well, now or never," he said, pressing the cool button beneath his fingers as he spoke into the speaker. "Attention all guards, attention all guards, there has been a violent disturbance in the men's cell block E, prisoner Cal Murrin," Ezra smirked, sending the guards right to the smug prick, always thinking he's smarter when he's, in fact, the dumbest guy in the room. His disgustingly pimple like head and bulging gut, he's had it out for Ezra since day one, and this was finally his revenge, as Ezra sent the guards right to him. Hey, two birds, one stone. "Prick, I mean prisoner, is using excessive force, two guards are already down, all available guards, we need backup." Ezra said, the static of the radio covering up his childlike voice.

He held his breath as the guards came pouring out of the guard room, all walking past him to his made up diversion.

"I'm telling ya, boss!" shouted one of the guards, frantically. Ezra recognized him right away. How could he not? He was holding the man's keys. "No way I dropped them, Bronka! I'm telling ya, I think one of the prisoners swiped them!"

"Whoa, these are some pretty serious accusations your throwing," said one of the guards at Bronka's side. "If you're serious about this then were going to have to search every cell in, which block?"

"I think it was D." The guard answered. Ezra's heart beat quickened, as that was his cell block. If they searched it and he wasn't in his cell…he didn't even want to imagine. Plus, with all the commotion, he'd never be able to sneak back in unnoticed.

"I'm telling you guys! I want every bed searched-"Ezra heard him yell, as he ever so slowly slid the keys across the ground, and out of his hiding place, then quickly moved his arm back to his side.

"Oh, for the love of Lasan!" Bronka shouted. "There right here!" He said as be bent down right next to Ezra, their heads inches apart as Ezra didn't dare move, as Bronka picked up the keys.

"You must have just dropped them." The other guard said, "now come on, we've gotta get down to cell block E, we've already taken lon….." Ezra heard the voices fade down the hallway as he hopped up for his space in the wall and into the hallway.

Ezra laid his hand on the doorknob, looked both ways, took a deep breath, and turned the handle.

The room was empty.

….

There were thankfully no guards in the room, just a large table in the center if the room, some chairs, a small fridge, and…filing cabinet, boo ya!

Ezra ran to the end of the room, swung open the drawer, and began searching frantically. "G, G, G…" he mumbled, finally coming up on 'Ghost'.

Now, since his schooling stopped in the second grade, his reading was less than good. But he knew the letters, well; most of them, and that was all that mattered when looking for a cell block.

He began skimming the file that could have very well be in Wookie for all he knew, making out some of the words like 'TIEs, down, and Ghost.'. Ezra finally found a word that sounded like 'storage' and the one next to it started with a U, and he already knew the word 'it' so it must have been 'unit.'

"Storage unit!" He called, finding the word 'Ghost' in it so he knew he was right. He sounded out the word 'cell', and immediately recognized the letter next to it. "Storage unit F." He said, as if hearing if it sounded right.

Ezra went to put the file down but something stopped him dead in his tracks. The word, burred somewhere in the text, started with a 'j' and was somewhat familiar. Ezra sat there, mesmerized by it, as he started to slowly sound it out. "Je..Jedy..Jed-i…Jedi. What? That's impossible, all the Jedi are wiped out, why.." A Small sound form outside had Ezra jumping out of his skin, as he quickly threw the file back in the drawer, ran to the door, and closed it quietly behind him.

Ezra dashed threw the hallway, knowing they'd just now be realizing his diversion was a fake, and threw himself down the steps, catching himself of the door, and closing it as quietly as possible.

He made his way past the cells in a hushed run, finally getting back to his cell.

"Zeb!" He whispered.

For some reason he was slightly relieved to see the Lasat's eyes glowing back at him, from the other side of the bars. "What took' ya so long? Get in here!"

"Right," Said Ezra, opening the barred door, or, at least, trying. "It's locked!" Said Ezra.

"Of course it's locked! We closed it when you left! Where's the key?"

"Oh, um, about that..." Said Ezra.

"You lost it!" Yelled Zeb in a loud whisper.

"No! I didn't lose it! I just…gave it back to the guard…"

"You what?!" Yelled Zeb, louder this time as Ezra shushed him.

"Do you wanna wake the whole prison?!" Ezra shouted in a whisper.

"Your small, can't you just…slip through the bars?" Asked Zeb.

"If I could slip through the bars do you really think I'd be in prison?!"

"Who's shoutin' now?" Said Zeb.

Ezra sighed. "I never thought I'd be trying to get _into_ a cell. What are we gonna do, Zeb?" said Ezra, fear streaking into his voice.

Zeb's eyes softened, the tiniest bit, "alright, alright, calm down, all we have to do is get a new pair of keys and.." but was cut off by a voice at the end of the hallway.

"Hey!" A figure yelled from the end of the hall. "What do you think you're doing!"

…..

A/N, hey guys, happy thanksgiving Monday! I'll try to update my other stories as quickly as possible! I took a (LONG) Julius Caesar break for you guys! Yup. Teacher: Where's your Shakespeare project? Me: FanFiction, Mr. D. FanFiction.

Lol, love you guys, please review!

-Azilia


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

…

When Ezra was ten years old he watched as a man, who couldn't make been older than twenty, try to swipe the blaster right off of an Imperial storm trooper's belt.

No one had ever accused him of being a smart man.

He watched as without hesitation, flinching, or surprise of any kind, the other trooper pulled out his blaster and tased the man with what would later be rumored was nine volts over the legal limit for civilians. It was quick to draw a crowd.

Ezra watched the man fall to the ground with a stifled cry, the troopers walking away with the man seizing in the dirt like nothing of importance had just taken place.

Two men who just moments ago moving crates into _The Asteroid Belt_ jumped from the crowd, trying to wake the man who was foaming at the mouth. Everyone knew it was pointless, the electricity bolt setting to the blasters was new to the Imperial troopers, and they were just giddy to be able to try them out.

They were thankfully recalled the following month because the Empire claimed that if they fell into the hands of villainous rebel scum that it would endanger too many innocent lives. At least that's what the Empire claimed, the real reason being the civilian casualties were starting to number up and the stats for people recruiting into the Empire were starting to drop.

Ezra, who had just witnessed the whole thing, still could not comprehend the dead man at his feet, with the crowd still trying to hopelessly wake him. I mean, people getting gunned down in the streets wasn't something of an uncommon occurrence in Lothal, or any outer rim planet for that matter. But I was certainty when it was by storm troopers in broad daylight.

"What...Happened to him?" Ezra found himself asking, the crowd turning slightly to the child who had just watched a man die.

A gruff looking man in front of Ezra was the one to answer. "His heart stopped beating, kid." And with that the crowd broke apart, leaving him to rot in the street.

Ezra found this memory flashing across his eyes when he heard the voice from down the hall. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!"

He thought of it because he felt his heart stop, too. He briefly wondered if that's what the man felt, before he fell.

Even on death row Ezra had never felt so close to it.

As Ezra's head shot to where the shouts had come from, his bright blue eyes made out a cadet's uniform from the red lighting in the hall. He must have been here for Old Blue's execution, like he'd heard over the guard's walkie-talkie. This place couldn't even afford coms.

And that's when the smirk appeared on his face. He glanced at Zeb, who looked more scared then he did. "Aw, you _do_ care!" Ezra whispered, before standing up from where he crouched at the cell door, walking down the hall as if he belonged.

"My rounds." Ezra answered casually.

"Prisoners don't do rounds." The cadet answered quickly.

"They do here." Said Ezra. He couldn't have asked for a better audience! Imperial cadets knew just about as much as outer rim prison systems then he did about quantum mechanics. "Prisoners do all of the work here, guards just supervise."

The cadet slipped off his helmet, reviling a kid about Ezra's age. He had black hair cut in a short buzz cut, his hazel eyes and matching skin watched Ezra carefully. "Oh yeah?" Said the cadet. "Then where's your supervisor?"

And with no hesitation the cadet pulled out his blaster and fired.

…...

The blaster hit the lock before Ezra could blink, or Zeb could shout.

The door came unlocked with a clatter and hissed open, all well the cadet's face remained neutral. "Oops." He said. "Weapons malfunction, better call that in."

With that the cadet walked past Ezra as if they were strangers on the street. Ezra knew enough of his alphabet to sound out the name sewn onto the uniform of the cadet.

'LEONIS'

And before Ezra could even begin to comprehend everything his mother had told him about not to question your blessings (and before Zeb could grab his arm and yank him in the cell) Ezra spun on his heel and asked, "Why are you helping me?"

The cadet glanced over his shoulder, but kept walking. "To mess with the Empire." The boy answered, than rounded the corner.

And before Ezra could question his blessing anymore, he was being pulled into the cell by a much bigger hand.

"So.." Zeb said, letting the shock wear off. "You gave the key back?!"

….

There was no sleep to be had that night for Ezra Bridger. Almost dying and all kind of keeps you up, oddly enough.

The thoughts of a jedi being amongst the Ghost crew, having just found out the real reason Old Blue was to be executed the following morning, and a rouge cadet in the Empire was enough to keep anyone up for the night, not to mention a kid.

And yet that morning as he sat at the breakfast table with the Ghost crew, he didn't feel tired at all. In fact, his mouth was going a mile a minute, telling the crew the tail of how he hid in plain sight, stole a walkie-talkie right from a guard's belt, and even got Cal Murrin thrown in solitary. The words of finding the file, having to give the key back in fear of capture, and an encounter with a friendly cadet trooper were coming out of his mouth so fast; the crew had to fight to keep up. But the biggest amazement throughout the story was that no prisoners had woken up during Ezra and the cadets 'encounter.' That, or jut none questioned it.

Hera sat with a soft smile, listing to Ezra ramble on, just happy that there was still a part of him that was a kid. A small piece that hasn't been hardened by the world.

It wasn't until Zeb interrupted him that Ezra took a breath. "That's a real great story, kid, but can we skip to the part where you find out where our ship is being held?"

"Oh, right, that." Ezra said quickly, making Sabine stifle a laugh. "It says you're ship is being held in storage unit F." It was then that he began grinning wildly at Hera and Sabine. This is where he returned the numerous 'favors'.

"What?" Sabine said quickly. "Why is he starring at me?"

"Girls side of the prison," Ezra spoke.

"Gonna need a little more, Dev!" She said annoyed.

"Storage unit F is on the girls side of the prison, and unless you want to bunk with me then-" Ezra was disappointed when Zeb cut him off. Being up all night he had already planned the sarcastic things he was going to say. He thought he might even get Kanan to crack a smile.

"Hold on, kid." Zeb said. "How do you know all of this?! Have you seen a blueprint of the prison or something? How much longer are we going to blindly follow a kid?"

"Well, Zeb," Said Hera. "It's worked out in our favour pretty well so far. Ezra's taken all of the hits so far, I think he's earned a little trust."

"No." Said Ezra, "Never thought I'd say this, but Zeb's right. Rule number three to surviving in prison, never trust. Trusting gets you killed." It was then he looked to Zeb. "The reason I know where the storage unit is, is because I've been in there before."

Zeb scoffed. "You were scared to go upstairs, and you're tryin' to get us to believe that you made it all the way across the prison?"

"It was before I was arrested." Ezra said sharply.

The moment of silence past over quickly as Kanan spoke up, "Wait, you were in the prison before? So, you know how to get in.."

"Which means you know how to get out." Sabine spoke slowly.

The bell ringing throughout the mess hall cut them off, and before they knew it, Ezra was lost in the crowd.

….

They were all rounded up and sent to the wreak room like they do ever second day, before the task were assigned.  
But today the room was solemn, everyone knew this would be the last time they shared it with Blue.

The crew had lost the kid in the crowd and sat at a metal table on the far side of the room. Ezra had seen them, but avoided them on purpose. He had something he needed to do without them.

Old Blue was sitting in the corner of the room, far away from all of the movement, when he heard the voice. "You know, everyone here thinks that you're a good guy. But you're not. I know the reason you're here, but it's my fault really. I was wrong to think that, there are no good guys in prison."

Ezra waited as eyes the size of his hands slowly looked up at him. "Good people can do bad things." A deep and gravelly voice said slowly. The voice took Ezra back. He had never heard the beast cough let alone talk. No one had. Ezra cautiously took a seat next to him on the bench, but the eye contact never broke. Didn't even waver.  
"I didn't mean to hurt nobody." He said. "I used to get jobs. Tarring roofs, you know how the suns make em' all cracked. Every day when I'd be tarring up a roof this kid, Emerald, always came up. She'd sit on a pale, talk about school. We'd tell jokes; I could really make her laugh. You know how kids are, they'll always laugh. This one day, though, she came up to a roof I was fixing up, like always. This roof was a building though, three stories up. Emy, the kid I mean, but that's what her mama would call her, came up, just she was real happy that day. Showed me paper ship she made I class, flew and everything. I heard her school..her old one, was almost plowed down by a ship, crazy.

So we were just up there, my back was turned though. I was tarring up the roof, she throwing the ship and chasing it around. But..she threw it too far, ran too fast tryin' to catch it. It wasn't til' she was tripping over my tar bucket that I even turned around. I tried to catch her, I really did. Almost caught her too. But all the troopers on the ground saw was a falling girl, and me leaning over the edge."

Ezra didn't talk for a while after that, replaying the scene in his hear before he said, "Blue, it was an accident! Why-why haven't you told anyone? You don't need to die today-" but he was cut off by Blue holding his hand up.

"No." He spoke, "The way I see it, I wasn't watching her good enough, and that's just as bad. It was my fault, so guess this is my punishment."

"But, Blue-" Ezra tried, but it was pointless. His mind was made up.

"A kid died on my watch." He said. "I don't want to live with that."

…...

A/N: Hey guys, I got a lab top for Christmas (!) so I should be updating more! And I am so sorry this is late! But….this is the 4th time I've re-written this God forsaken chapter! It was going to be updated yesterday…friend turned off my computer X-x  
So anyhoo, I hope you liked it! Any questions, comment, or suggestions you can PM me any time!  
And lastly:

AZILIA NEEDS YOUR HELP: My story 'In Another Life' is missing its last chapter, and I have no idea how to end it! So you fans, I'm asking for help! How do you want it to end?! Tell me in a review, and your suggestion might just be how it ends!

-Azilia


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

…..

Ezra was pounding the rocks in the prison yard with the Ghost crew on the other side of it. He was now officially avoiding them. What was he thinking, telling them that he's been in the prison before?! They were just playing him and he knew it, yet he gave them just another advantage.

Sure since he's started hanging around them he's gotten in a lot less trouble with the other inmates. In prison, you don't mess with people who have people. And in return, Ezra pretty much does whatever they tell him.

And that's it. No relationship, no caring, and no trust. If Ezra isn't more careful, before he knows it he'll start getting attached to these people, and he knew that. And if the crew thinks that they can just walk in here and-

Ezra was shaken from his thoughts, along with the rest of the inmates as the unmistakable sound of blaster fire boomed from the prison for a full thirty seconds. It took everyone by shock at first as all heads shot to the building. But the realisation quickly washed over everyone as they all stood in solemn.

It started out with just one, then two, three, four, five, six, and before you could blink the entire prison was doing it. Ezra watched in astonishment as the entire prison yard stood with their heads bowed, and hats over their hearts. Not even the prison guards stopped it, none yelled to get back to work.

Ezra smiled slightly, before joining in the moment of silence for his friend.

Ezra had just learned yet another unwritten rule of prison: that even though you can't trust anyone, and literally every second person hates the first person, there is an unspoken respect. It is a fact that when one of our own dies, it's just that, one of our own. We all live by the same rules, and we all have the same common enemy. The only thing keeping them apart is the hate. Not necessarily for each other, but for everything.

….

Around noon two of the guards came out into the yard with a crate. They stopped in the middle of the yard and turned off the gravity generator, and said the exact same thing they did every day. "Alright folks, who's gonna take the work and the water, and who's gonna take the hit and the break? You know the drill, smart scum in the right line for water, and dumb scum in the left to get their name marked down."

Ezra had been hearing this every day, seven days a week for almost five months. He didn't even realize he had been mouthing the words the guard was going to say, mimicking him, until he was being called out for it.

"Got something to say, Morgan?" The guard boomed, darting Ezra's eyes to him in a snap.

"Uh…no-" Was the genuineness that Ezra's mouth decided to spit out. Uh and No. literally fifty percent of that sentence was a noise! But before he could dig himself out of the hole that he cannonballed into, the Guard (Parksen, yet another guard who is not a member of the Ezra Bridger fan club. It's in desperate need for members, actually.) Cut Ezra off.

"Well, considering you're so talkative, how about you and me have a nice long chat? No water, but you'll still work the extra hour. Seems like a nice little date, eh?" Parksen then turned to the other guard and handed him three credits. "Bet you he passes out before the end of the day." He laughed nothing joyful about it. Just sickening.

The guard who Parksen handed to credits to, Jarnus, new guy, looked to Ezra with the same look of discussed. Like he had no business being alive. It was what Ezra saw in most guards, but this guy just sent a shiver down Ezra's spine.

Well, he was already six feet deep, what's one more? "Can't wait, Parksen, I love dates. You're wife's great at them."

At least time Ezra expected the black eye, let alone earned it. Still didn't wipe the smirk off, though.

…..

Half of the day drudged past and Ezra needed water, fast. Or else he would end up face down in the dirt. His tongue was a dry sponge and the world had already started to sway. Most people would have already been on the ground by now, but Ezra wouldn't let himself. Only a few hours left, he could-would, make it. He _could_ ask the Ghost crew, but then would be shot down by questions about how he had been in the prison… _before._

Ezra was taken back from his thoughts when there, out of nowhere, no warning, nothing leading up to it, point blank, the man next to him was gasping in surprise as blaster bullet went through his chest. Than shoulder, then back, then head.

Ezra didn't even have time to question this, because soon enough it was happening to everyone around him. People falling, and red beams going everywhere. He stood paralyzed at the sudden array of blaster fire, that it took the heavy hand on his shoulder to grab him and yank him back so hard, it pulled him both from the scene and his trance.

Kanan.

He pulled him back behind the wall of the prison, dead end, where Ezra saw the rest of the crew. They were all pressed up hard agents the wall.

"What's happening?!" Sabine shouted, angry her blasters had been taken away, leaving her and her crew defenceless.

"I..I-" Ezra was surprised at his loss for words. One second he was hitting rocks and the other blaster fire spread out throughout the camp. One second he was on Lothal, and the next, a war zone. He had seen things, bad things, but never like this. In this moment he was just a scared kid, and he hated it. Hated it even more because he knew the crew could see it.

"Dev." Hera spoke calmly but sternly. "Do you know what is going on?"

"I...No. " Ezra admitted. Ezra glanced around the corner and stopped. Held his breath. No, it couldn't be! It was the guard who Parksen had handed the three credits to, a crazed look in his eye as he continued to fire at the hiding inmates, and even soon, his fellow guards as they attempted to gun him down.

"They don't deserve to live!" He shouted, he was crazy! "I am the Emperor and I give you all the death sentence!" The guard yelled, sending another shower of blaster shot out into the courtyard.

Ezra turned back to the crew, his face looked brave but he could do nothing for his terrified eyes. "It's one of the gauds! He's gone rouge! (1)." Ezra said.

"Okay." Said Kanan, "Here's what were going to do."

…..

A/N: Too short? Lol, love you guys, I'll try to get the next chapter up this week! Review if you love me! Bye! (And the next chapter of Hiding in a Ghost is almost done!)

-Azilia


	10. Chapter 10

IGNOR: HEY GUYS, I POSTED THE WRONG CHAPTER! IT WAS UP FOR A FEW MINS, SO IF YOUR CONFUSED THAT'S WHAT IT WAS, SORRY!

Chapter 10

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra ran fast, but never ran out of breath. The adrenaline kept his heart beating fast, and the panic buzzing throughout his mind made it impossible to remember that his lungs were supposed to be on fire.

Every part of Ezra, yes that is Ezra, before he was Dev Morgan, shook. His hands, his mind, his breath. "Crazy." Ezra had whispered. "This is crazy." Ezra stopped quickly and jumped out of a beam of light that had threatened to expose him. Ezra looked up at the tall building, taller walls. The men with the big guns in the prison and the gang with the even bigger guns outside of it.

Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Well." Ezra mumbled t himself. "Guess I'm certifiably insane."

For Ezra Bridger was about to become the first kid on Lothal to break _into_ prison.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarnus had already gunned down two guards, four inmates, and three lay on the ground with oozing wounds.

Kanan's plan better work.

"Anyone want to explain to me one more time why _I'm_ the decoy?" Ezra whispered in a strained voice.

"Majority rules?" Tried Sabine.

"Dev." Said Hera, "You're the fastest and you don't have any medical training. We need to get out there and help those people. Now are you in or are you out?"

Ezra looked her dead in the eye. "In."

"Then let's go." Said Sabine.

Kanan nodded and the plan commenced. "Hey," Said Kanan to Ezra. "Look, you've got nothing to worry about. Just stick to the plan and you'll be fine. We've got your back. Believe it or not, we're a team."

"Yea." Ezra said, "Just as long as I'm useful."

And with that Ezra ran, his head down low as he dove behind a forgotten pile of rocks. He glanced to the crew; now all he had to do was wait for the signal.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra held the package tightly, being forbade to open it. You know its dangerous when even Ezra Bridger won't look inside! His chest pounded, and fear threatened to paralyze him, but the second the light shifted Ezra was off with the wind.

He got to the tall barbed fence, happily seeing the jagged hole cut in it. "Matz keeps his word." Ezra mumbled, hopping through the fence.

Ezra Bridger had just broken into prison. He hoped that he would never be used to the feeling of the prison ground under his feet.

Ezra made it to the storage unit, the huge white door to the building towered over him as he looked at the neatly painted red F on the front. And, at the two guards who lay unconscious at his feet. " _All_ of his word."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Two more inmates had been shot dead, and no guards were in sight. They needed to move, and _fast._

Jarnus' shouts had become louder, more filled with rage. It soon turned clear that he would not rest until each inmate lied dead on the ground. "Nice try buddy, I'm not punching my card early!" Ezra mumbled.

The boy dared to glance over the pile, seeing Zeb charging at the man. He had his single, time to run!

Ezra ran right in Jarnus' line of sight, dodging the bullets that whizzed by his body and being upset that he didn't even have time for a 'Hit me baby one more time' reference.

With him being distracted firing at Ezra; Zeb was quick to make his move. He launched at his blind spot and began wrangling away the gun from Jarnus. The second he was on the ground, Sabine, Hera and Kanan all rushed to those wounded on the ground, as they were the only ones with emergency medical experience. Sabine from her days in the Empire knew how to treat blaster wounds in the field. Kanan knew how to treat the burns from blaster grazes, as they were similar to light saber ones, which were very common at the Temple. And Hera just simply specialized in medical training as a requirement for flight school. Funnily enough, before they send the people up in fighter jets, they like them to know how to treat a head injury.

Relief should have filled Ezra, but it still felt like the whole world was exploding around him.

Something wasn't right.

Ezra turned around to see that Zeb had yet to get the blaster away from Jarnus. They both roll around on the dirt throwing punchs, but the blaster was still tightly in the crazy man's hand. With one swift kick, Zeb was sent flying back. Jarnus staggered to his feet quickly, pointing the blaster to Zeb head.

It was only panic that swarmed Ezra. Confused fear as he was too far away to stop anything. "No!" Ezra shouted, pushing his arms forward.

Ezra had not the slightest idea of what just happened. Everything felt like it was moving slower, and he felt so— _cold._

The crew watched as Jarnus was sent flying back and into the fence.

Ezra fought to keep his eyes open as he fell to the ground. What the hell had just happened?!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Imagine Ezra's disappointment when he learned that storage unit F was on the _girl's_ side of the prison. _On the opposite side of the prison he needed to be on!_

"This is not my day!" He muttered under his breath.

Ezra held the package tightly in his hands. It was small, just bigger then a pack of cards and neatly wrapped in thin brown paper. Breaking into a prison wasn't exactly how Ezra thought he'd be spending his Friday night.

It had all started weeks earlier when the head of the Scull Traitors got some of his guys to start watching him. They watched Ezra swipe food, mess with the Empire, and get away in a pinch. Ezra was perfect.

So they cornered him in an ally, handed him a package. Told Ezra to get it to their man on the inside, and they're pay him thirty credits for it. Plus having the Scull Traitors, a gang feared as much as the Empire on most of the outer rim planets, on his side was only a plus. And, you know, there was always the fact that you say no you die, is _kinda_ their policy…

And so he ended up here, opening the storage unit's door just enough to slid under.

"Whoa.." Ezra breathed. It was _huge._ The ceiling was forty feet up, at least, and the unit was filled with space ships. All ranging from seven feet tall to thirty! Speeders, cars, engines' laying around, even a few TIEs, it was crazy! A gold mine! All towering over Ezra along with the bright white ceiling and walls.

Ezra ran through the giant unit noting that there were no guards. "They just guard the outside of the Storage units; no one would ever think to guard the _inside_ of it. Good to know.." Ezra smiled.

He made it to the end, to the door leading to the prison. Ezra kneeled down to pick the lock, but held his breath as he heard the muffled conversations of some guards on the other side of the door, and quickly backed away.

He needed to find another exit. Spotting an air-vent, he quickly glided up a ship, twenty-odd feet off the ground, and knocked off the vent with his electricity slingshot.

Looking at the package he was risking his life for one more time before going in the vent, Ezra hoped whatever it was worth it. "Little late to turn back now." He said, climbing in the vent and hearing the metal _clang_ as the vent closed behind him. Metal ageist metal, Ezra thought about how that's what everyone in this place heard every night before they went to bed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra crawled through the vents, thinking he had to be getting close. And he better be! The only time he can escape is during the guard's shift changes, in about half an hour.

Ezra glanced out of the vent, seeing how far he had come. Ezra didn't think you could get a heart attack at thirteen, but came pretty close to it when he realized that storage unit F, the one he had just come from, was on the girl's side of the prison.

The opposite side of where he needed to be.

Perfect.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Twelve minutes left until shift change and Ezra had still yet to find where the men's side was. "Alright. I've been to the girl's side, down eight hallways, shimmed up two upwards facing vents, and had one awkward encounter with the guard's bathroom. This has gotta be it!" Ezra looked out of the vent's gate. "Wow. Didn't think this would be it!" He exclaimed.

Ezra hoped down from the vent, and immediately stopped. He stood on metal barred floor, the only thing lighting his path was dulled red lights going down the hallway. All down the hall, both left and right, were barred cells with still bodies in them. Snores filled Ezra's ears.

Now all he had to do was find the guy.

"I think you're looking for me, kid." A low, still voice said from behind him, making Ezra stop himself from shouting out in surprise.

Ezra turned to see a man, _a big man,_ who he could not tell his scars from his wrinkles. He could have been old or young; your guess was as good as Ezra's. He gestured to the package in Ezra's hand, "Oh, right…" Ezra said, handing him the package and then withdrawing it. "Wait, what's the password?"

The man smiled. "Knew you forgot something. Can't just go handing that over to anyone, eh kid?" The gravelly voice said, but Ezra didn't move. He couldn't risk messing up this op. "I used to be a lot like you, when I was your age. Running with the big boys, are you?"

"The password." Ezra insisted.

"The problem with hanging around people like us, is your gonna end up just like us, too." The man continued.

"What's the passwo-"

"Get out of this game when you can, kid. Or else you'll be on this side of the bars."

Ezra stood still. The man's words had gotten to him. He was just doing a job, a job that he was going to get paid for. Because so many people wanted to give a street rat a job. So many wanted to offer food. It was either this or the Empire. He was doing what he needed to to survive. So why did it suddenly feel so…wrong?

"Bronka."

"What?" Asked Ezra.

"Bronka." Said the man, sticking his arm from between the bars.

"Oh..right, here." Said Ezra, passing over the brown paper package.

Ezra watched the man slowly unwrap it, dying to see what he was risking his life for. A package of death sticks. "Death sticks?!" Said Ezra. "I broke into prison for _Death Sticks?!_ "

The man just smiled again. "These, kid, are as good as gold in here."

"Broke into prison for Death Sticks.." Ezra mumbled.

"Hey kid?" The man spoke, grabbing Ezra's attention once more. "You still need to break out."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Six minutes until shift change. One right, one left, then two rights, up and then left. Ezra had already memorized how to get back to the Storage unit form cell block D. "Better remember that." Ezra mumbled. "Could come in handy.."

Back in the storage unit Ezra just ran. As fast as he could. The shouts of guards filled his ears, as Ezra gave up being stealthy as he dodged the blaster rays dancing all around him.

"We can see you, kid!" A guard shouted.

"Can't prove it!" Ezra shouted back, giving a salute back right before he jumped through the whole in the fence.

And he was right, for when they checked the security feed, it was all just static. The Scull Traitors were brutal, but not dumb.

Still, Bronka remembered that day. He didn't know how, but he was going to catch that kid, and he was going to kill him. If it got out that his prison was broken into by some _kid,_ well the Empire would take away what little funds they gave to keep the prison afloat.

It was a good day for Samsus Bronka when two month later, he walked into his office and saw a file on his desk, the picture next to it of the same blue eyes he had seen on the kid who almost shut the whole prison down. He smirked wildly to himself.

He was going to get this kid killed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra managed to hold onto conciseness, but the icy feeling grew in his stomach as he sat up on the ground to see the Ghost crew staring at him. Jarnus was unconscious.

Zeb got off the ground and looked to Kanan. "Thanks for the save, mate." He smiled.

But Kanan just kept looking at Ezra. "It wasn't me.." He finally said, looking to Zeb. "It was Dev."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Hey guys, tell me how it was! Hope this was quick enough for you! (I'll try to get another one up this week!)

-Azilia


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A/N: So Sorry for the wait! Thank you to all my lovely, lovely fans!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The look of shocks were cut short. Funny enough, just after the rebels, the _Ezra,_ I should say, as he played the biggest helping hand in this whole operation, had gotten the gunmen down, was also the exact moment the guards decided to come into the courtyard, guns a-blazing.

Little late, guys. A for effort, though.

Kanan's eyes were pried from Ezra as his arms were wrenched behind his back by a guard. "Easy." Kanan growled from gritted teeth at the guard. "I'm helping him, we all are!" He yelled, addressing his crew, them too at their knees, than at the man who lay doubled over from a blaster wound. His stomach bled and his skin sizzled.

" _Please._." Hera pleaded, arms in the air. Her stone cold face not wavering as the blaster was pressed harder into her back. "We have medical experience, we _all_ do. We were all locked up without a charge, you know that! We're no danger!" Another groan from a prisoner filled all they're ears. "Let us help them." Hera said firmly.

Sabine's mouth was so dry at the sight of the courtyard. Six dead from what she counted and a dozen, at most, injured. People she could help. She sloshed around what little saliva she had left and felt her breath hitch as the pressure was removed from her back. There a no longer a blaster pressed to it. Three years, _three years_ she spent in that Academy, and never, not _once,_ had she ever seen any mercy. Not even when the youngest cadet was injured in training. A quick memory of him, the twelve year old kid, being shot in the head for a simple leg wound. _'The weak must be left behind.'_ Was all the instructor had said to the teens.  
She started planning her escape that night.

Sabine had to remind herself that these were not Storm troopers. They were guards. They were _men._

Dirty, cheating men living on a dirty, cheating planet.

A man, late twenties, stubble and a look about him that just tells you he's seen too much, raised a first to his men. "Stand down." He commanded the guards. Both Hera and Kanan's eyes fell to the man's arm. An orange plastic string was tied around his right upper arm. Kanan smirked. The Guard equivalent to a Storm troopers Orange shoulder pad.

 _Man,_ this place was on a budget!

"Come on, man." The guard behind Hera sighed. "If Bronka finds out-"

The guard picked up the wounded man who lay at Hera's knees. Bleeding from his side and leg, by the collar of his shirt, and brought his pained face inches from Hera's. "Can you save this man?" He asked, making a show of it, with the guards as they're audience.

Hera didn't know what the man was going to do, but _this_ never crossed her mind. "Uh-" Her stone cold face was replaced with something that more closely resembled _what the heck is this guy doing?_

"Can you save this man?!" He demanded, this time harsher.

"Yes!" Hera yelled, stopping, calming her voice, and meeting the guard's eyes. "I can."

"There you have it." He said, dropping the man like he was nothing and looking back to his men. "These people can live. So who wants to make the call home? Who wants to tell buddy's wife," He said, kicking the wounded man, "That his eight months just got turned into life? Tell her it was 'cause you were afraid of what your boss might think."

Sabine let out a cool breath at the man's true words.

"Anyone who's not dead, hurt, and anyone who doesn't know how to help the dead or hurt, stand now." He barked.

Ezra still felt cold. His stomach felt icy, his mind raced and his hands shook. Something that was all too new and all too familiar. Sheer muscle memory made his knees straighten, forcing himself to stand. Along with him, eleven or so other men stood as well. "Get them out of here." He ordered.

Ezra was hustled out of the bloodied court yard as fast as his eyes met Kanan's.

. . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .

Ezra has just assumed he was being taken back to his cell, but he quickly realized that he was being lead down the wrong hallway. But before he could question anything, Ezra was being shoved into a small holding room. No, wait. Not a holding room, an _interrogation_ room. And a room Ezra remembered all too well.  
A memory came to Ezra of being brought into this very room the day he was arrested. Soaking wet from the rain, muddy from being slammed to the ground, bloody from the fall and sour from the blaster shot.

Hell of a night.

"You're in a whole heap of trouble, kid." The guard had said, smirking. Almost like this was the first interesting case he had gotten all day. "We've got sworn testimonies from almost every vender in the Lothal Market. You've racked up quite a bill." He had said, throwing the large file across the room and onto the small metal table that was bolted to the ground. "That's grand larceny, you know."

"Really?" Ezra had said, "You mean this _isn't_ cheerleader tryouts?! Man, I'm going to be _so_ late!"

"Funny." The guard said dryly. Thin man, lanky. Almost skinnier then the street rat but taller than him by two heads, at least. "Plus I hear your resisted arrest pretty well." He said, glancing over the papers."Chased you for seven blocks and injured _two_ of our men." Thin black mustache, matching greasy hair. Quiet. Ezra studied the man.

"Only?" Ezra asked cockily. The guard ignored him.

"So let's just add on resisting arrest, right there with the grand larceny." He said, marking it down on the paper. This guy, this random guy, was the judge and the jury. "And let's not forget speaking out agents the Empire. There are at _least_ thirty cases of you messing with our patrolling troops, kid." The guard said, shaking his head in disbelief and stifling a laugh. He almost seemed impressed.

Almost.

"Patrolling troops?" Ezra shot, "More like arresting anyone they please for 'treason'!" Ezra knew that this was probably the _one_ time that he _really_ shouldn't be running his mouth, but self control was not any young teenage boy's forté.

Again, he was ignored. "Messing with the Empire, that's disturbing the peace." He said calmly, not looking up from the papers in his hands. He spoke calm, cool, and detached. Just like he had done a hundred sentencing's today and is going to do a hundred more after Ezra leaves.

"There has to be peace to disturbed it." Ezra shot. Okay, that one he didn't ignore, socking Ezra in the gut, than looking back to the papers as if nothing had happened. Ezra grunted and doubled over in pain. But the man didn't seem to notice or care. Just like his words, it was like he had done it a hundred times today and a hundred after he leaves. "You're looking at a good five years here, kid." He laughed, shaking his head once more.

Just then the door opened, revelling a man, human, just shorter than the agent who had arrested him, but strong. Strong _and_ fat. Large arms along with a pot belly is not a figure that Ezra had seen before… Or had he? The man had a dark brown, very short beard and a uniform which slightly differed from the other guards. When the others wore red t-shirts with grey army pants, black army boots and black armor covering their arms, shoulders and chest, this man's shirt was dark green.

"Hey, Bronka." Said the guard.

Bronka.

At the time Ezra would not know how important that name would be. "What are you doing down here? Just sentencing, nothing special." The guard, admittedly just trying to do his job and feed a family, smirked at Ezra. "I was just telling kiddy here, that he's looking at a good five years."

"Oh, five years?" Bronka cooed, sitting down across from Ezra, plastering a fake concerned look on his face. "Oh no, son. I'm afraid you're mistaken. You see, breaking into a federal prison? Well that's a life sentence right there."

"Hey, you can prove anything!" Ezra shot, arms still remaining across tightly across his chest. Trying to match the other guard's calm appearance, and failing. In fact, so was the guard… he looked just as confused as Ezra, just not as angry.

Ezra did not expect laughter. Cool, contained and cocky laughter. "You see a jury of your peers anywhere, kid?" He asked smoothly. The man- _Bronka-_ leaned back in his chair, pot belly sticking out and staring at Ezra for a good couple of seconds, just soaking in the tension. This guy was loving it, every second. "You don't got no parents to bail you outta this, do ya kid?" There is a certain way someone sounds when they ask a question that they already know the answer to. So all knowing, as if you were talking to God himself and not liking what you were hearing.  
Ezra said nothing, but broke stare before returning it once more. "No friends," Bronka continued. "Not a single person who's gonna miss you. More importantly, not a single person who's gonna notice you if you're gone."

Both Bronka and Ezra knew that every word he was saying was true.

Bronka looked back down at Ezra's file. As soon as the man's eyes dropped down, Ezra's blue ones darted towards the baffled guard _. Try to save a kid, or try to feed his own?_ That was the question the man was now asking himself now, Ezra imagined.

Bronka gave a low whistle at the papers. "Trespassing on federal property, along with the list you've got going?" Bronka said, standing up from the table. A horrid metal chair against cement floor momentarily pierced Ezra's ears. Bronka's smile was gone. His voice had dropped an octave. "Give him death."

"B-but sir, tha- that's not fair, the files show-" The guard was pinned to a wall before he even finished his sentence.

"Did I stutter?" Bronka asked, his arm over the man's neck. Just a little more pressure…just a little more.

"Sir..." The man spluttered.

"Did. I. Stutter?" Bronka bit out.

"No…" The man rasped out just before the grip was removed. He gasped. "I…was just" the man gasped again, claiming the air. "Going to say, that he's only thirteen. You can lock him up and throw away the key all you want, but you go executing minors and there's gonna be an uproar." _His kids_ , Ezra thought. _Of course they won_.

Bronka just smirked some more. "Looks like were gonna get to know each other real well then kid."

It was that moment that all of the dread inside of Ezra pooled into his stomach The moment he really knew how screwed he was. "Can't wait."

Ezra had just met the executioner.

. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . ..

It all happened, right there. Ezra looked at the table he had sat at. The wall the guard was pinned to. The room where his fait had been sealed. "What are we doing here?" Ezra asked sharply to the guard that had shoved him into the room.

"Being held for questioning." The guard answered obviously.

"Questioning?!" Ezra gaped, "What'd I do now?"

The guard scoffed. "You didn't really think you could just attack a guard and get away with it."

For once in his life Ezra was at a loss for words. "I.. Wha-….That guard was _shooting_ people!"

"That's not for me to decide." The guard said closing the door behind him.

"Hey!" Ezra yelled, pounding on the door. But it was too late. He was gone.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Force sensitive." Hera whispered to Kanan after a guard had passed, as she tightly wrapped the ripped fabric around the groaning prisoner's thigh. "He has to be!"

"I know." Kanan breathed, "I've known…" He said one more, even more under his breath and tightened the bandage around the man's side way too tight as he jumped up in surprise when Hera yelled "What?!"

The prisoner let out a sharp cry as Kanan whispered a quick apology. "I said I know!" Kanan said harsher, but quieted up as fast as he blurted it out when a guard harshly shushed him.

"Force sensitive." The guard who shushed Kanan laughed. "Let me tell you something, Jedi and unicorns go hand in hand!" The guard said, laughing again. He stopped when he heard the inmate groan in pain. Kanan quickly put pressure on the open wound.

The guard then crouched down to be at eye level with the rebels, and their patients. "What, uh, what's wrong with him anyways?" The man asked. As the man leaned down the two rebels read his name tag.

'REIDEZ'

"Blaster grazes." Kanan answered warily. This was the first time a guard had actually treated them like some type of human… and _Twi'lek_. "He didn't actually get hit, but man if they took some skin off." He said looking down at the groaning mans stomach. Long, red, oozing lines, three of them, burned the man's flesh. Smoke was still coming off of him. Thankfully he was human, as that was the anatomy Kanan was best at.  
Kanan looked back up to the guard, gently placing two fingers lower down on the man's stomach. He was too much in pain to hear the conversation and Kanan wished he had something to give the man to numb it. "It's just a good thing it didn't hit him here."

"Why?" The guard- Reidez, asked, now intrigued.

"Because," Answered Hera, "that's the bowel. You get hit there, goes into your blood stream. Nothing anybody can do after that. The infection would spread too fast."

"Damn.." Reidez breathed, taking the inmates hand and giving it a squeeze. "Hang on, Dommel." Reidez said to the man. "I'll call your wife, tell her you're gonna be okay. Because you _are._ " Now _that_ threw the two off. This was no outer rim planet guard! "How do you know all a this?" He asked, getting up.

"We're your average prisoners." Kanan answered the man.

"Why do you treat us with such respect?" Hera asked.

The guard smiled. "Not your average guard. Well, that and this guy totally saved my skin a couple months back. Found my engagement ring."

"Reidez!" A guard from across the courtyard yelled. "Are you gonna flap your gums or get more bandages?!"

"Story for another day." He whispered with a wink, before running off. "Yes sir, _Bronka_!" He called back, mocking the man with the comparison and making a few guards chuckle.

"Watch it." The guard warned with a smile.

Looking around the courtyard really was a sight to see. Prisoners and guards, usually, heck, _always_ at war, working together. Working alongside each other to help the wounded. About three had died since the 'medical team' had started. One of the guards and five of the wounded had already left the courtyard on some manmade stretchers they had thrown together. All they could do was make them stable enough to travel. Once they were, the guards loaded them up onto a transport, taking them to the closest hospital about eleven miles out of town. At that point, all they could do was pray that the men made the journey.

The Ghost crew, along with two other inmates who had medical experience and seven guards monitoring them (from a distance, thankfully) filled the courtyard. Some smoked, others offered cigarettes, water and much needed gauze to one another. It reminded Zeb of his time in the Honour Guard.

In his experience 'Quiet before the storm' never really was a thing. Just something soapy to say to make their stories more interesting. But this was it, the real thing. The quiet _after_ the storm. Where your heartbeat's just starting to go down from the excitement, but you can still hear the ringing in your ears. Where both sides just _shut the hell up for one second_ , and co-exist. Like the walls or the war, in that one moment, don't matter.

But it's just a trance. It doesn't last forever. Something woke them all up, and that was Sabine asking, "Hey, where'd they bring Dev anyways?"

Kanan was about to tell the young girl he was most likely taken back to his cell, when one of the guards spoke up. "He was taken in for questioning, just like the others."

"What?" Said Sabine in disbelief.

"Questioning?" Zeb repeated.

"For what?" Demanded Kanan, "He did nothing wrong!"

"Anytime a prisoner attacks a guard there has to be questionings." Answered the guard. "It's a strict protocol. Whiteness', there's a report, goes on your file. It's huge process. But let me tell you, as long as I've been here, _anytime_ there's been a case like this, it's _never_ worked out in the prisoners favour… If you know what I'm saying."

There it was. Trance broken. Everyone was once again reminded who was who.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The lack of water was really starting to hit Ezra. He had been in the courtyard all day, working without water. All for mouthing off to Parksen….I mean, worth it but still. And then of course, the black eye he got for….kind of, maybe, sorta making fun of the guys wife….

"Man," Ezra admitted to the empty room. "I really _did_ deserve that one."  
Well, at least since Ezra was alone in the room that was about to seal his fate for the second time this lifetime ( _man he hated this room!_ ) then at least he could try to figure out WHAT IN THE EMPOROR'S NAME JUST HAPPENED!

"I just threw a guy…with my _mind!_ " He yelled. Sitting down after this nut-so morning, the adrenalin finally slowed down and logic began to seep back into the brain. "With. My. Mind! That's gotta be some…. Some-"

"Some Jedi trick." Bronka finished, entering the room.

Ezra jerked around as fast as he heard the familiar, taunting voice. "What are you getting at?" Ezra said quickly, forcing the fear out of his voice but, not in time for it not to tremble as he spoke. "I knew you were crazy, Bronka, but Jedi? Really? This is bad, been for you. All the Jedi were wiped out a long time ago, _everyone_ knows that." Ezra finished, obviously.

Bronka walked slowly over to the table, freshly shinned army boots clicked agents the cold cement floor, the sound bouncing off of the matching stone walls. Bronka, ignoring Ezra's statement, pulled out one of the two chairs to the metal table. He pulling it out slowly, letting the grinding sound pierce both of their ears. "Lot of memories in this room, eh Dev?" The man asked, but never looked in his direction.

"Yea.." Ezra said casually, deciding to let the man talk. If he could just make it across the room! If he got his back to the door, feel the metal agents his back, Ezra was _sure_ he could pick the lock! The only problem was _then what?_

Twenty guards would be on his back by the time Ezra took his first step out the door. Ezra knew it was never a real possibility. All that was left was to run his mouth. "Memories, or as I like to think of them, 'power hungry old guy kills orphan'. I should really get you a mug!"

"That's it." Bronka said, _way_ too calmly. _Bronka_ was never know as being a calm man. "That smart mouth is the reason I can't _stand_ for you to be here any longer. You're the only one I couldn't break, Morgan. The only one. And let me tell you something, I can' have you walking around this prison for another year. You may not notice this but the others, they watch you. You're like…Like a message of Hope or something. I simply can't have it."

"Too bad, Bronka. You still got one more year, starting tomorrow. Can't kill me 'till I'm fifteen, nice try though. You're persistent, I'll give you that." Ezra smirked.

Once more, Bronka laughed. Cold, short, and not at all joyful. "Well that's where you're wrong, junior. Don't matter _how_ old you are, you use your…your jedi _mind powers_ to make a guard go bonkers, shoot up a prison. Having _that_ kind of blood on your hands? Well, we can kill you, _no questions asked._ "

"What are you talking about?!" Ezra yelled, shooting up from the table, his chair falling behind him, hitting the floor with a _crash_. "That guy was nuts, all the prisoners, _and your guards,_ saw it! You've got nothing, Bronka, _nothing."_

Ezra was oddly confident in times that he really shouldn't be.

Bronka just stood up from his chair and crouched down a bit to Ezra's height, enough to smell the morning Caf on his breath, and the alcohol that went with it, "And who do you think they're gonna vouch for?"

Ezra's face fell.

Bronka's laughed.

"You'll end up just like Blue by nightfall, kid. Just not as missed." The man, the cruel. cruel man said over his shoulder as he walked out of the room, the door sealing behind him, along with Ezra's fate.

The second dam time this room had ruined his life. Or more so, _the man in it._

"All for fruit." Ezra mumbled.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The sky was pink and orange by the time the crew and the other inmates finally finished bandaging the last man.

They weren't fixing anything, more as just making them stable enough to travel. As for Jarnus, the guards just scooped up his unconscious body ad took him to God knows where.

"You guys done?" One of the guard asked, as Zeb nodded, patting the fallen man gently on the shoulder as two guards picked him up on a creaky, man-made, last-minute gurney and took him off.

"Alright," Said a man standing next to Reidez. "I'm going to need you all to come with me for questioning. Now, since all the others were questioned about this hours ago, we'll just do you all at once so some of these guys can get home."

"What's there to question?!" Sabine said, still outraged. "That guy went nuts! End of story."

"It's just a protocol, girl. Nothing to worry about." The guard assured, pulling out the cuffs then stopping He sighed. "You know what, you just saved half of the people out here,"

"Over half." Kanan corrected.

"I think I can trust you not to try to escape on the ten feet it takes to get to the room, let's just go." He said tiredly, opening the door out of the court yard.

The crew warily followed. Something wasn't right.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The crew was led to a small metal room with a tired looking, thin man with greasy black hair. The other inmates in the courtyard with them had been taken somewhere else, but no one really noticed.

"Hi, hello." He said boardly, not looking up for his clipboard and saying his sentences as if it was the millionth time today saying them. "You may notice you out number me, you may also notice that there are ten armed guards outside of this room. Try anything, you get shot. If your stories do not match up, you get shot. Understood, understood? Great." The man said blandly, as if he was a teacher doing a lecture to a bunch of middle scholars two weeks away from retirement.  
"Now, can you tell me what happened in the courtyard?" He asked, finally looking up at the Ghost crew.

"Yes," Said Hera. "The guard, Jarnus I believe, lost it. He began shouting about how we didn't deserve to live. The next thing we knew, he pulled his weapon and began firing."

"You know," Said Sabine, "The same exact thing everyone else told you!"

"Is it true you saw the young inmate, Dev Morgan, push the guard back with his mind?" The guard asked.

"Yea…" Said Zeb, "We did, and he saved us all."

The guard lowered his pencil to check off the final box. "And lastly, do you believe that Morgan used his Jedi mind powers to drive the guard to do what he did?"

"What?!" The whole crew yelled, but Kanan was the first to beat them the punch. "He _saved_ us, you're crazy! Besides, no _way_ he's advanced enough to know how do something like that." Kanan shot. "Not liked I'd know…"

The guard just looked at them. They weren't the first to deny the clam. "Well, if you aren't sure, the prison, and it's fine guards, can make it worth your wild to… refresh your memory."

"This a bribe or something?!" Zeb shouted.

"Look man," Said the guard, finally sounding like he wasn't reciting a line. "I'm just doing my job here. But Bronka's already turned enough of the inmates around with bribes of seeing their kids. This kid's dying, _tonight._ We've got more than enough alibis to support that, so you might as well spew the same story and get something out of it."

"You can't do that!" Kanan screamed.

"Sorry buddy, it's done." The man said. "Doesn't matter though, the kid's just punching his card early."

"Oh, and what's that supposed to mean?!" Zeb yelled defensively, slightly surprising the crew with protectiveness for the kid.

"Kid's on death row, you didn't know that? They can't kill him 'till he's fifteen. Man, Bronka really hates that kid. He finally figured out a way to do it early."

The silence in the room was louder than the courtyard when Jarnus went crazy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra was cuffed and lead down the hall back to his cell. The guard leading him joked about how Ezra had to 'kill time before they killed him.' Ezra didn't laugh.

The looks he got from the others in their cells were a mixture of guilt for turning on him, and hatred as word had gotten around the prison that the 'Jedi kid' had made a guard go nuts and kill all of these guys' friends.

It was a fifty fifty split of who thought what.

As Ezra passed Kanan's cell he didn't dare make eye contact with the man. He could still see the pity out of the corner of his eye, though.

Ezra was pushed back into his cell, and rubbed his soar wrists. He was to be killed at midnight. Ez didn't even have time to freak out though, because right after the doors closed behind him, they were opened again and Zeb was pushed in.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The suns were now fully out of the sky, black and blue taking their place…. The same colour as Ezra's eye for mouthing off to Parksen.

Worth it.

"Hey!" Kanan yelled to a passing guard. "Hey!"

"What?" The guard barked.

Kanan looked at the man. "Tell Bronka I need to see him, _now."_

The guard then, instead of barking out words, barked out a laugh. "Yea, and what makes you think I'm gonna do that?"

Kanan's face remained straight. "Tell him I've got some Intel on that Empire he's so keen on."

The guard studied him for a while before continuing to make his rounds. The guard retuned ten minutes later and unlocked the cell. "You've got two minuets." He told the Jedi.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"I'm gonna die!" Ezra said, passing back and forth in the cell as Zeb sat on the bottom bunk with his feet to the floor.

"Calm down, Dev." Said Zeb, "Now's not the time to freak out."

"What?!" Ezra yelled. "Now is the _perfect_ time to freak out! I am about to _die!_ "

"Dev, relax. Kanan will figure something out."

"Yea," Ezra scoffed, "Right!"

"Dev," Zeb said, but was interrupted.

"Stop calling me that!" Ezra said frustrated.

"What? Your _name?_ " Zeb said, rolling his eyes.

"Dev's not my real name, it's an allies. That way if I ever _did_ get out of this place they'd be searching for 'Dev Morgan' and not me."

"Dang…" Zeb breathed. "I shoulda thought a that..."

"What am I gonna do, Zeb?" Ezra asked. He hadn't felt this… this _empty_ since he saw that man, face down on the street after getting mowed down by those troopers. Empty, hollow, and scared.

"I…I don't know kid…" Zeb admitted. Little did Ezra know that Zeb was feeling just as empty as him. "You, uh… You did good kid." Ezra just made short eye contact with him, and nodded, before his eyes fell back to the floor. "Hey, kid?" Zeb asked.

"Yea?"

"What _is_ your real name?"

"it's-" Ezra said, but was cut off by the guard banging his gun agents the metal bars. Ezra's stomach _dropped._

This was it.

"Good news, junior!" He said, "You ain't dying today."

"What?!" Both Ezra and Zeb yelled at the same time. "Why?" Ezra asked.

The guard just smiled. "Why don't you ask your boy Jurrus." He said before walking away.

Ezra, for once in his life at a loss for words, just turned to Zeb. Zeb gave a small and a relived laugh. "What'd I tell ya?" He smiled.

"Hey, Zeb?" Ezra asked, his face still 'deer in headlights' and Zeb's not being able to conical it's grin.

"Yea, kid?"

"Is it possible to get a heart attack at thirteen?'

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 _Earlier…._

"This better be damn good, Jurrus, I've got a wife to get home to." Bronka barked from where he sat behind his desk, the inmate standing before him.

"Trust me," Kanan said. "You don't want to kill Dev Morgan."

Bronka scoffed. "Really now. And why is that?"

"Because." Said Kanan, "In exactly fifteen days and four hours from now, the Empire's storm troopers, agent Kallus and the 'Inquisitor'," _Whoever that is_ Kanan thought, _some sith of some kind._ "Will be coming to collect me and my crew, correct?"

"Correct." Bronka bit out, half wanting to scream him out of the room, but also wanting to see what the young man was getting at.

"How mad do you think they'd be when they figure out that you killed a force sensitive kid?"

"Nice try, Jarrus." Said Bronka smoothly, "Empire hates those guys. Ever hear of Order 66? Once they learn that we rigged this galaxy of another one a them, they'll give this prison so many funds that we'll _become_ this planet's economy."

Now it was Kanan's turn to smirk. "Not a kid." He said simply.

"What?" Bronka asked.

"Not. A. Kid." Kanan repeated slowly. "They find out you killed a force sensitive kid, and they'll kill you, your guards, and torch this place faster than you can say 'oops'."

"And what's so special about a kid?" Bronka asked, intrigued.

Kanan gave him a long stare. "There's still time to time to turn them." He said coldly, as a brief memory passes across his eyes from when a boy had turned at he Temple. "You kill a potential _sith?_ You're putting _yourself_ on death row."

You could cut the tension with a knife. A straight minuet passed before Bronka opened his mouth."Reidez!" Bronka yelled, as the door to the small office opened.

"Yea, Boss?" The young man asked, poking his head in.

Bronka spoke to the guard, but his eyes never left Kanan. "Cancel the midnight execution. Tell the men it's off."

Reidez looked to Kanan and smiled. "Yes sir, right away."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: So sorry for this long ass update! I tried to make the chapter very long to make up for it I hope you all liked it! J  
Thank you all so much for making this the 11th most followed Star Wars Rebels story on the site!  
Lots of love, and as usual, spaghetti is the best food ever! J ;)  
Until next time!

-Azilia


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A/N: Wanted to get this posted for Christmas, I hope you all enjoy my little chapter-present! I am so sorry for the wait, but I wanted to get it _write._ Heh..get it? _Write?_

I hope you all like it! Enjoy!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"What did you do?!" Both Ezra and Zeb shouted at Kanan that next morning in the mess hall. Hera, along with Sabine, were more than shocked when they learned that last night's execution was off. That the kid, for now, was safe.

The girls never doubted that Kanan had something to do with it.

"I may have pulled some strings…" Kanan said, looking town to his Annie-like meal. The slope had him about ready to hop up on the table and start sinning 'It's a Hard Knock Life'.

"A few stings?!" Ezra bellowed, "You pulled more than that! You pulled me off _death row!_ How'd you do it, huh?"

"Well how about asking why you were on death row in the first place." Kanan said, looking up at the boy and gaining the crews full attention. Kanan was mostly just trying to get the spotlight off of him, avoid the answer. Don't get me wrong, Kanan wanted- _needed-_ to know why the kid was on Death Row as much as the rest of his concerned crewmates. But admitting to Bronka that the kid was force sensitive, to _conform_ it. Well, he may have saved the kid but just cut all of their time in half.

The Empire finally getting wind of the Jedi _and_ a potential Sith kid would surely be enough to make them pick up their feet.

"You know," Ezra said quickly, "Bronka tried to pin the whole shoot up on me!"

"Before, kid." Kanan said tiredly. It was four in the freaking morning, he didn't have the energy to play this game.

"Look Dev, we know." Said Sabine, bluntly yet slowly.

"Know what?" Ezra said, somewhat defensively. No matter how much Ezra was beginning to like the Ghost crew (and _hating_ himself for it) all those years on the street had built more than a few walls. Walls that were gonna take more than seventeen days to knock down. This day in particular reminded him of that.

"We know that you're on Death Row, and not just since last night." Said Zeb, "So spill."

But rather than focus on everything that Ezra had tried to keep hidden from the group and explain himself, Ezra found the back wall where all of his attention should be spent. Bright blue eyes staring off into space as the memories danced.

Ezra was not there anymore, but thrown from the table and violently tumbled back in time six years.

It was the one year that he didn't get cake.

One of the two sun's in the Lothal sky had just gone down, the other just barely hanging in the sky, making it orange in its dying hour. The dusty alleyways of the crushed up rock were quiet, as it was just an hour away before the Empire's curfew. When the troops would take over the streets.

But that didn't mean that the Bridger home wasn't lively. Only this time, it was not because of streamers and sugar-filled neighbourhood children running amuck.

Ezra knew something wasn't right. There was no party, no presents, and no family friends to fill the home. Come to think of it, no one really wanted to be seen with the Bridger's lately.

They had tried to keep their spirits up and their smiles on, but they were fading a fast as the sunlight. Ezra peered from behind the corner of the hallway, where he was supposed to be in his room, to watch the worst of the fight unravel.

"They know where we are, Mira! _Who_ we are!" Ephraim yelled.

"And you think I don't know that?!" The woman yelled back.

"We need to leave!"

"And what?" Said Mira, anger, fear and confusion all filed her words. A dangerous combination

" _We. Need. To. Leave!"_ He repeated again.

"And what?!" She shrieked back. "Just pack up and run? And go where, Ephraim, huh? No one in the city will look at us, no transport will take up to the closest moon, let alone a new _solar system."_

Ezra didn't like it when mom screamed, didn't like it when anybody did. That was the first thing that he had to get used to on the streets, but not quite yet. He wasn't quit there. Nonetheless, he jumped back a bit, his small socked foot sliding agents the floor and colliding with the coat rack, sending it tipping to the ground with a crash.

"Ezra!" His mother had yelled.

"Dev!" Said Kanan, making the boy shoot up in surprise, sending his unused spoon to clatter agents the metal of the table.

"Yeah, sorry, what?" Ezra gaped.

"You all right there, Dev?" Sabine said, shooting him a quirked eyebrow.

Ezra sighed. "Fine. So Bronka's had it in for me from day one, right?"

"What are you talking 'bout?" Zeb asked gruffly.

"You want to hear the story or not?" Shot the boy. Ezra didn't really know what was coming over him right now, but for the first time in his life he didn't see the logic in keeping a secret. They all ready knew, and besides, Ezra was already so colossally done with this day that it didn't really matter. Noting did."If you can get me off death row for now then I can tell you a story." That may have been the most grown up thing the crew had ever heard the kid say. "Well, actually make that _before_ day one..."

"This is regarding you being in the prison _before_ you were arrested." Hera spoke slowly, but it was not a question that she was asking.

"Yeah.." Said Ezra, making quick eye contact with the table. "Yeah it is. I was in pretty deep with some worse people, people whose favours you don't decline. They needed someone small, quick, to deliver a package to a man on the inside. Turns out a scrawny street kid with nothing to lose fit their criteria perfectly."

"And what, Bronka saw you?" Said Sabine, "How were you not caught?" Sabine tried not to let her amazement seep into her words. A kid sneaking into prison earned Ezra may more brownie points then she was willing to admit.

"I was quick." Answered Ezra. "I wasn't worth a search party or the cost of the paper for a wanted poster. Besides, there was no way the prison was gonna let out that their security was breached by a kid."

"Makes sense.." Zeb chimed in.

"So when I finally was caught a few months later swiping food," Ezra continued, "Bronka make sure I wasn't going to see the outside of these walls unless it was in a body bag."

"He can't do that!" Sabine yelled. "…Can he?"

"Corse he can." Said the kid. "Nobody on the outside of these walls has probably even noticed I'm gone. No one to miss me, more importantly no questions. If anybody did notice they defiantly wouldn't have cared, and Bronka knew that."

"Jeez." Breathed Sabine, "you really have no one, do you?"

"Sabine!" Exclaimed Hera.

"Neither do you." Ezra said quickly, defensively.

The girl just shrugged. "I've got them." She gestured to the table.

"Ezra." Said Kanan, breaking through the conversation. "If you got in… do you know how to get out?"

"Nope." Said Ezra standing up, "I want _no_ part of this. I work alone. I am small and fast and _I_ didn't even make it out unseen _last_ time, and you want me to do it _again_ with _you guys?_ Good luck getting Fuzzy out of here unnoticed."

"Who you calling Fuzzy?" Yelled Zeb.

"It'd never work." Ezra said bluntly.

"All right, everybody just calm down!" Hera yelled, but before the loud, and somehow also dull, buzz rang though the mess hall and the half awake crowd criminals all stood up in a group slump.

"Saved by the bell." Ezra smirked to Kanan, before disappearing into the crowd.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .

It seemed like every day the sun got just a little but closer. A little bit hotter. At least that was the thought passing through Ezra's head as he pounded on a rock, this time twice as hard as he saw a guard watching him from the corner of his brilliant blue eye. Did he see the guard watching him or did he feel him?

The sun was hot, that was for sure, but at least it was bright. Ezra remembered being in that dark box in the basement. One beam of light creeping in as he heard nothing but Trooper's boots on his own homes floor, and his mother screaming that they wouldn't find anything. Screaming or praying?

He was also cold, not so much from the temperature of the room but from the cold feeling that had crept in and grasped his bones.

So I guess being hot and in the light was better than cold and dark.

"Talk about looking on the bright side." The boy joked with himself.

"You say somethin'?" Zeb cut in, making himself look busy. The Jedi stood not far behind. Ezra must have been deep in thought, as he didn't even see them cross the courtyard to where he had been avoiding them.

"Nothing that concerns you." The boy bit. "What do you want, anyways?"

Kanan scoffed, "Can't drop a bomb like 'I've escaped prison before' and get away with it."

Ezra shushed them. "You'll get us all caught." He warned.

"Nice try, kid." Said Sabine as she came up from behind, making Ezra almost jump out of his skin. How long had she been here? "You got us on Yard Duty to talk in private, remember? So talk."

"'Bout what?" He said, not making eye contact as he took a swing.

"'Bout how we're gonna get outa here." Said Zeb.

"That's it." Ezra growled. "Hey, Reidez!" He called over to the guard, "We need more rocks, let us go to the shed and grab some?"

Reidez glance warily to the pile of rubble at the rebels feet before tossing him a pair of keys. "You've got five minuets- and remember, I'm always watching."

"Always." Ezra smiled back. "Hey, can the new guys come, help me carry?" The boy said, as if the thought had just crossed his mind.

The guard nodded as Ezra singled for the crew to follow. Once they were in the small garage at the very outskirt of the lot, Ezra finally looked up to the crew. "Alright, I'm done with this." He hissed. "All of my stuff is on the table, okay? You know I'm on death row, you know I've broken in here before, _and_ you know that I'm apparently _force sensitive_ or whatever! I mean, that's pretty awesome, I threw a guy with my _mind-_ but we'll deal with that later! So you're going to tell me _right now_ what you guys are doing here, or I walk." The boy rambled slash promised.

Just as Zeb opened his mouth defensively, Hera put a soft hand on his shoulder, standing him down. "You're right. This has hardly been fair, if we are going to work as a team-"

"- _Team?"_ Ezra interrupted.

"The everything needs to be out on the table." She continued. "Dev, we are what you'd call _Rebels._ "

"No way." Ezra stated.

"It's true." Shrugged Sabine. "Mess with the Empire whenever we can, sneaking on ships, messing up supply orders. We've even taken on fleets and made some allies. To our knowledge there aren't many of us but with how hard the Empire's coming down on us five has us thinking we could have more numbers then we realize."

"So, you guys aren't exactly good guy but you're not bad guys either." Said the boy warily.

"We're not exactly anything." Continued the girl.

"What do you mean the Empire's coming down on you?" Asked Ezra.

"It means that in about a week there going to send down a convoy to collect us. They want to make an example out of a couple rebels for the whole galaxy."

"Karabast.." Ezra breathed, as Kanan smirked a bit at the thought of Zeb teaching Ezra to swear.

"You're not the only one with a time line, kid." Said Zeb.

Ezra's lips twitched up a bit, as if a smile were thinking. "You know," He mused, "If you guys were to get out, I bet the Empire would be _really mad._ Bronka would have a whole fleet of TIEs coming down on him."

"Yeah, and?" Asked Sabine.

"And _not dying_ does sound pretty good.." The boy continued.

"You said it'd never work." Said Sabine.

"Well now I'm saying why not? I've got nothing left to lose and nothing left to live for. Let's get out of here."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For once in the history of Prison as fast as the day started it ended. The Ghost crew sat at the metal table picking at their diners much as they had done with their breakfasts hours earlier. This time the atmosphere was much more lively- much more awake then the four o'clock crowd.

But for Ezra the booming laughter and metal cups on tables all drowned out, much like the screams.

It was the first year that he didn't get a cake.

 _CRASH._

"Ezra!" His mother yelled out in surprise, her voice breaking away from the thinly veiled argument. Both parents faces softened. "Ezzy," Mom smiled this time, wiping her tears with both hands. "Mommy's just being silly." He ran into her arms and was being lifted just as fast. "Just being silly." She whispered

again.

Ezra was soon in his father's arms. For a boy of seven a father's arms were much better for supporting him. Ezra wished he'd remembered that moment a little better- and little clearer. Something happy to hold onto when the night got just a little bit colder or his pants came a little bit looser.

But he didn't memorize the spicy smell of his father's jacket or the way his hair tickled his little face as he rested it on his shoulder. How was he supposed to know that he should have remembered that moment if he didn't know that that was the last time his father would hold him? How was a kid supposed to know that it was going to be the last time?

Because soon his father was using his other arm to peak open the drapes. And soon Ezra was out of warm arms and onto the cold floor.

Cold.

"Now Ezzy." Said his mother, trying to stay calm but talking quick. Her hands shook violently as she brushed back his bangs. "Remember how we showed you where to hide? In the no-play room? Well it's time to do it for real now, okay? We're going to do it for real now and Mommy needs you to be brave, okay?"

"Why?" He asked. "Come with me! We can all hide, I swear!" But bright lights were already starting to shine though the cheap curtains. The boot steps were already starting to get louder.

"Ezra, go!" His father yelled, which got him to move, because Daddy never yelled and when Daddy yelled it meant he was serious.

His mother pushed back he chair reviling a trap door. As soon as Ezra was on the ladder the chair was covering it again, resulting in darkness and fear.

Ezra tried not to cry as he scurried down the ladder, almost tripping as his sock slipped from the cold latter and his grasped to stay on. Once his feet were on the floor of the secret room he heard the banging on the door. The muffled shouting voicing and a loud crash Ezra would later discover was the front door falling down.

Grabbing the ladder once again, about to climb for one sneak peek before he remembered the rule. No matter what you hear, stick to the plan. And so he did. The loud booms above head or the terrifying sound for any child that was of his father yelling meant nothing as Ezra hid. They couldn't mean anything or else nothing would get done.

Ezra got the box, a big wooden one that was once a toy chest. Ezra pried off the heavy top and climbed into the now storage container. Old wires and faulty tools dug into his back as he pushed himself into the chest, pulling the top back on.

Zeb didn't believe in 'the calm before the storm'. Thought it was just something sappy to say to make a story just a bit more intriguing. But Ezra did. For a brief second all the muffled yelling stopped, and the banging and crashing and the screams.

It took Ezra a second to determine if what he was hearing was his own heartbeat or boots overhead. He decided on both.

But then that second ended, and the low moaning sound of furniture legs being moved screeched above head. A beam of light came over Ezra's face from the crease in the box. Ezra held his breath.

Mommy kept screaming but Ezra just kept remembering the rule.

Remember the rule, remember the rule.

No matter what you hear, stay put. Hide. Don't move.

 _No matter what you hear Ezra. No matter what._

"We found it!" A Trooper yelled as the room was discovered.

"We've got all we need, take them away!" Called another.

Ezra wasn't sure how is heart could sink and beat at the same time. _Take them away._

 _No.._

All too soon Moms pleas and Dad's empty theatres were gone out the door, forever.

"Check the room!" One commanded, as Ezra heard someone sliding down the ladder, followed by two more.

Heavy boot steps went slow right by Ezra's head for an agonizing minuet.

It wasn't long before the chest was being opened, and Ezra was staring face to face with a cold, hard armored face.

Buckethead.

Wide and tear-stricken blue eyes starred at the man in pure, unadulterated fear. Ezra slowly but half heartedly but his hands up in surrender. Would he at least get put in the same prison cell as his parents?

Miracle was not a word that you would want to be throwing around lightly on Lothal. Here a miracle was the Mackle children down the street going a night not being hungry as eight bellies was too many to feed on a minor's salary. A miracle was the price of medicine not going up to match the Empire's escalating taxes. But this? This was nothing short of a myth. Completely unbelievable unless you were there- _unless you lived it._

The trembling boy watched as the trooper slowly but surly put a finger to where his lips would be under his helmet, telling the boy to stay silent. Sliding the top back on Ezra's hiding place, he heard a crisp ' _All clear!'._

In less than an hour the house was clear, and Ezra was left running through the streets, trying to catch a Star Destroyer.

At least he found a tower.

"Kid!" Kanan called. It just occurred to Ezra that he had been staring at the table.

"Yeah?" He said, shooting up.

"Come on kid," Sighed Kanan. "We need to stay focused. What's going on with you today?"

"Yeah," Agreed Zeb. "Been starin' off all day."

Ezra sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, alright? It's just not a good day. It's never a good day."

"What do you mean, Dev?" Hera asked softly.

"Empire day."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Merry Christmas- and here's to many more chapters and 3oo followers in the New year! Love you guys, you're what keeps me going!

MARRY CHRISTMAS! (And a Happy Holidays!)

-Azilia


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 _Sorry about the first posting! IDK what happened…._

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Guard's shift change is every day at noon, two, four, eight, and eleven." The boy spoke. "Got that?"

"…Got it." Said Hera, scribbling the times down in Morris Code on a napkin. This was something taught to all pilots, a complex language she was sure the Guards would not understand if they got a hold of her writings.

"What else?" Sabine whispered, " _Besides_ Storage Unit F."

"Oh, I'm sorry, are my insights to the prison boring you? 'Cause I could stop." Ezra shot.

"You could try." Zeb growled, cracking his ginormous knuckles. Ezra laughed a bit, the fact that he was actually scarred of this guy at one point.

"Settle down." Kanan ordered, as they were pressed for time. The voice of their leader quickly silenced them- even Ezra. "Dev, when you came here, the _first_ time, how did you do it?"

"I came in through the vents." He said.

"Cool!" Sabine smiled. Ezra ignored the warm feeling that that put in his chest. Yeah... it _was_ pretty cool. Ezra smiled back, slightly surprising the table.

"You remember the way?" Kanan asked.

"In Cell Block D the duct above cell twenty-six is one right, one left, then two rights, up and then left." Ezra spoke, reciting what he had memorised, going over the directions in his head every night until he was sure he wouldn't forget them.  
Ezra wondered if that was what studying was like. He somehow knew that he needed to remember it, like it would be important someday. And, lo and behold; he was right. The crew stared at him. His smile fell. "What?" He asked. "Just 'cause I didn't go to school doesn't mean I don't know stuff." He said defensively.

"It's not a lack a schooling that made you dumb, kid." Zeb laughed.

"Zeb." Kanan said harshly. "He's finally giving us some Intel, don't start provoking him now." The man said, though the only thing he was really focusing on was the fact that the kid wasn't schooled. Had he been a street rat all his life? Everyone comes from somewhere.

"Whatever." Ezra shot. "It doesn't really matter anyway, good luck getting Furry in a vent. 'Corse, we _could_ always just leave him…"

"Nice try, kid." Zeb growled.

"Well," said Sabine, "We already know how to get out of our cells."

"Mixed with our experiences getting out in a pinch and Dev's knowledge of the prison, getting out shouldn't be the craziest thing we've ever done." Hera smiled.

"That's it!" Sabine called, just barely keeping her voice down. "We can't just keep _planning._ Empire comes for us in six days. We need to make a plan to leave before that happens."

Kanan paused before calmly saying, "Then we leave in six days."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"You sure 'bout this, Kanan?" Zeb asked, pounding the rocks as the sun pounded its way onto him. And he thought Lasan was hot! "Seems like we're cuttin' it a bit close."

"The day Kallus comes for us will be the most confusion for the prison. They'll have the place crawling with troopers, but they'll keep the prisoners moving. Bronka loves to show off to them, he's desperate for funds. He'll keep us moving and doing hard labour all day- he wants to show the Empire that he put us to work."

Sabine scoffed. "That guy just keeps doing tricks, hoping to get a treat."

"You know, this would be a heck of a lot easier if they just kept us in one place." Zeb said. "That way we'd know where we would be when it's time to blow this joint."

"Zeb's right." Sabine said. "We could be _anywhere_ when it's time to bust out. How will we know where we'll be?"

"We're just going to need to stay calm and prepare ourselves as best we can." Hera said softly. "This will all work out." She smiled, trying to reassure her crew. She prayed that they couldn't see through her.

"And if it doesn't?" Zeb asked.

"Then I'll be reuniting with my master a little earlier than planned." Kanan responded.

"And I, with my race." Zeb grimaced.

For once Ezra was like a child at the dinner table- being seen, not heard. But the thing about not being heard, especially as it was such a rarity around the kid _, was people often forget that you can hear._

"So," Ezra said, cutting in and ignoring the wary glares he was receiving from the guards. This was the first day back since… "Riddle me this, if your some kind of Jed-" the boy glanced back to the guards, "Of… _you know what_ , then how come you weren't wiped out with all of the other ones?"

 _The shooting._

 _The running._

 _The… fear._

 _The Clone telling to hide. Why? Why would he tell him to hide?_

 _Why would be help?_

 _Help…_

 _Billaba…_

Kanan was about to say something when Sabine broke in. "And what happened to your parents again?"

"Okay, okay," Ezra said, putting his hands up in surrender. "I get it, touchy subject." They went on pounding the bricks in silence for another minuet before he spoke up again. "I bet you were crazy, though. Like, double sided light saber crazy. Bam, bam, bam!" The boy said, welding his shovel around as if it were a sword. "Probably took out, like, twenty clones at a time." The crew snickered a bit, laughing quietly as they did their work. "Maybe you had two light sabers… _and_ a blaster. No wait, a light saber with a _built in_ blaster!"

Kanan was relieved to know that the kid still acted, sometimes, like a kid.

"Oh yeah, kid." Kanan said. "I was just that good." The crew continued to laugh, and by the end of it, Ezra could just begin to see out of his bruised eye for the first time in days.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"On the bright side," Zeb said as the crew, and Ezra of course, sat around the hard metal table. Proteins of cold soup and hard bead sat before them. "If we _do_ get caught, we're screwed, you've still got, what? Two years left to figure out how to get outta here." Zeb said, using his spoon to gesture to Ezra.

"One." Ezra said, stirring his soup but having yet to take a bite. "Starting yesterday."

The crew stopped. "You mean… yesterday was your birthday, Dev?" Sabine asked.

Ezra shrugged. "It's on Empire Day, so needless to say it's not my favourite time of the year. Plus, getting older doesn't exactly play to my advantage in here…" He said, cocking his head in the slightest and shrugging a shoulder.

"Fair enough." Kanan agreed. "Empire Day's… never a good day."

"Just look at the Voice of Hope." Hera said, sadly. Ezra almost choked on his watery dinner.

"Who?" Zeb asked.

"Voice of Hope." Kanan said.

"They were the only Lothalian group to publically speak out against the Empire." Hera said.

Kanan grimaced. "And the last."

"Whoa…" Sabine breathed. "What happened to them?"

 _Mommy's just being silly… just being silly._

 _Now Ezzy, remember where we told you to hide?_

 _In the no-play room?_

"Captured." Kanan said.

"Empire Day, nonetheless." Hera shook her head.

Ezra's head was spinning. This couldn't be happening. "How have you heard of them?!" Ezra shouted, catching himself a few glares. "I… I mean, I thought that they were just a Lothalian-held name… how did you…?"

"We try to keep up with any defiance's in the Universe." Said Hera. "It is rare to find the public openly speaking out… all too rare. So yes, Dev, we have heard of them, even if it was before our Crew's time."

Ezra held onto every word as if it was a bedtime story. Their words… they… they hadn't died with them! Hey were still being remembered by others- by _strangers!_ People who have never stepped foot on Lothal in their lives knew who the Bridges were- or at least the Voice of Hope.

This quickly filled Ezra with a giddy feeling, a feeling that he just knew he had to do more- _be more. He_ was going to get out of here. "I'm going to get you guys out of here." Ezra stated, out of the blue.

"Huh?" Kanan said, because he almost hadn't heard the quick comment.

"Where'd that come from?" Sabine laughed.

"It's just… I know you guys do a lot of things- stuff for the universe and people..." Ezra said awkwardly, cursing himself for opening his mouth, but at the same time so glad that he did. "I wanna make sure that you can keep doing that."

"….Thanks, Dev." Kanan said warily. Not knowing where all that had come from, and worrying where it _had._ "But, you do know that you're going free to, right?"

"Yeah," Zeb laughed. "You help us, and you can go back to your old life, too."

Ezra frowned. "Yeah. Great. If we actually manage to pull this thing off then I'll need to find a new planet. Start stealing from its people." And so the cycle goes.

"Didn't think of that.." Sabine said.

"Hold on, hold on, let's just take this one step at a time." Zeb said."De- _Kid,"_ he corrected himself. It felt weird to call him _Dev_ when he knew it wasn't his real name. Information he had yet to share with crewmates. "Any ideas on how we're actually going to do this?"

"Well," the boy said, mischievous smile returning to his face. "We're going to need some help. But don't worry; I've got a friend coming in."

"Friend?" The crew called, almost in unison.

Ezra smiled as the bell rang. "I swear you time these things!" Kanan yelled over the blaring and hustling of the room.

"To the minuet!" The boy called back.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"So, is the Voice of Hope like, _famous_ or something? Out _there_ I mean."

Zeb groaned loudly and rolled over to his side, covering his ears with the thin pillow. This must have been the ten-thousandth questions he's endured since lights out- _an hour ago._ "Kid, we get six hours sleep in this joint. Cut into that time-"

"- I know, I know, then you'll cut into me." The boy whispered back. "You said that already."

"And you've yet to listen." The Lasat responded flatly.

A moment passed in silence, and Zeb rested into the bed. "Did a lot of people hear they're broadcasts?" The voice cut in again.

"Kid!" Zeb barked.

"Sorry." Ezra whispered. But how on Lothal could you expect a fourteen year old to sleep?! Thoughts that all of the ill advised stunts his parents had pulled (not like he hadn't had his fair share...) might have really all been for something! And to top it all off, they were hatching an escape plan, five days from now, _with_ the Empire _at_ the prison on escape day.

It was like giving espresso to a toddler.

"Hey, Zeb?"

"What?!" He responded, contemplating suffocating the kid with a pillow. Then again, Jedi mind powers instilled enough fear for the beast to keep his distance. That, and the kid was maybe, kinda, sorta, growing on him. Like a tumour.

"Do you think it was…" Ezra searched for the right words. To finally find someone to ask questions to, though a limit-full source, was all too exiting. "Brave?" He finally found the word.

Zeb sighed. "I think they got captured and no one's heard from them since." Ezra opened his mouth to retort. " _But_ , they knew that that was a risk, so yeah, I guess you could say that."

"You think so?" Ezra asked, eyes looking at the same pealing ceiling.

"Brave or loth-cat bonkers, you take your pic." He said. "Why do you care so much? You knew them?"

"You… could say that." Ezra said, but he wasn't about to cry in front of this guy again, so he kept his mouth shut. That, and this whole being on a team thing was still taking some getting used to.

"Descriptive." Zeb retorted. "You really have never been off of this rock before, have you?" He said, rolling over once more.

Ezra snorted. "You mean like, space?" He laughed a bit, but with no joy. "Foods not in the budget most of the time, so no."

Zeb was quiet for another moment. "Well, that's all gonna change in a few days."

Now _that_ finally shut him up. "Yeah…" He chocked, swallowing hard. "I guess it will…"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"On your feet!" The guard ordered, everyone in the mess hall standing up in unison.

"What's going on?" Kanan asked. Ezra smirked as the room, seconds ago lively and having a terrible breakfast, died in an uncomfortable silence.

"Empire's here." Ezra whispered.

The Crew's hearts stopped. What did he mean… the Empire was _here?_ All the planning, all the stress, all the _danger._ So close, and not even given a chance? No. something wasn't right. Why would they come five days early?

And why in the hell does Ezra look so calm?

After the initial panic passes, however, the logic will soon set in that, as the kid had told them on their second day here, the Empire comes in for routine checks every week- sometimes twice. They've been here for long enough to know that! Heck, last time they were here that Cadet in the hall nearly scarred the life out of both Zeb and Ezra… Which made the panicked looks on their faces even funnier!

Everyone's just a bit on edge… Except Ezra. What is that kid planning? Just as the Bucket Heads and their _child soldiers-_ 'cadets' some call them- walked past the barred doors, looking in a bit and inspecting the men who have made mistakes in their lives, they continued down the hall, lead by Bronka.

" _As you can see, very little defiance occurs in out strictest of facility-"_ Ezra heard Bronka's gravelly voice make his way down the hall, sounding like a glorified tour guide.

"Relax." Ezra said to the crew, a little too loud for the hush of the room.

"Quiet!" A guard barked.

"Hey, he started it!" Ezra yelled back, shoving Kanan a bit in front of the guard. The Crew's eyes rose... Sabine opened her mouth to intervene but shock kind of made her forget how to form words.

"Hey, ki-!" Kanan tried, beating her to it. He was baffled to say the least. He _was_ a kid in prison. Was he finally reaching his tipping point?

"No, I've had it with you!" Ezra yelled, catching the bored inmate's attention from where they stood. Before the guard could make his way across the room, Ezra shoved Kanan to the ground, ready to pounce on the Jedi. A guard grabbed him before he could.

Another quickly joined his friend, as they threw the kid to the ground and began kicking the living snot out of him.

"Hey!" Kanan yelled as he watched the guards boot collide with Ezra's ribcage. But before he even knew what was happening, a guard was wrenching his arms behind his back and hoisting him up off the ground.

"Eh! Lay off, him! Lay off!" Zeb yelled once he saw Ezra's nose began to pour blood. The Lasat charged, taking two guards out before four more could detain him. Out of nowhere two guards tried to grab the girls. It was basic instinct for Hera to fight back when someone comes up from behind. Watching Hera duck down and have the guard fly right over her back in one swift move was all the approval she needed.

Ezra had started an all out riot in less than two minutes. If those guards didn't kill him Kanan would be happy to oblige.

"Take them to solitary!" The guard screamed, after his friends could detain the threats. The crew all stood with a guard to their back. "All of them! Go! Take them away!" The anger in his voice dripped.

This was going to be a lot of paperwork.

Kanan burned holes in Ezra with everything he had. What was he thinking?! He knew better then to trust some punk kid. Maybe he was _trying_ to sabotage the whole mission! All he had to do was keep his head low for a few days. Now he'd screwed them all.

Despite his anger, he still grimaced when some blood dribbled off the kids chin. Bastards didn't have to go so hard on him. It's not like the kid overpowered them.

The prisoners around the room stood still, unmoved, just as protocol says. Fighting was just about the only thing the guards took seriously. Because fighting turned into riots. And riots turned into t _heir_ asses on the line. The other inmates wanted no part in this, especially after the courtyard.

Ezra looked to the crew from where he stood, arms too wrenched behind his back. And boy, did they look _pissed._

Perfect.

Ezra smirked as much as he dared, giving a quick wink to the crew before falling completely limp in the guard's arms. Kanan's heart stopped.

The guard cursed. "Bring him to the infirmary! The others solitary! Move, now!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N- Again, sorry for the wait! I went to London with my school, though! Has anyone ever been to Piccadilly Circus? It's amazing! And yes, we took the lame pictures at Abbey road!

Next chapters going to have lots of my fav character… hope you like! : ) Feel free to say in the comments on what in the heck nuggets you think Ezra's thinking!

-Azilia


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

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Zare didn't know what to think.

I mean, sure he was scared, not only was he a kid in prison, but an imperial trader as well. But what the Empire didn't know won't hurt him…

Zare had been here less the twenty minutes, his second time being here in two weeks, when he and his superiors had already jumped into their defence positions.

There had been a riot.

Luckily the guards had taken care of it; one of the troopers grumbling about the paperwork this routine check in was going to take. Zare didn't hear much of it though- he was too focused on the kid with blue hair. He had been the one to start it. He _also_ kind of happened to be the kid that he had helped last time he was here… Oops.

It _was_ kind of fun, though, helping a prisoner break _into_ a cell.

Zare hadn't asked why he was out of his cell, what he was doing. It didn't matter. The kid was just like him- trying to fit in, in a foreign place.

"Keep it moving, Kid," A trooper ad barked at him. "There's a lot more action to be seen in this job then outer-rim trash throwing punches."

"Yes, sir." The Cadet nodded before following along. One thing Zare could not _stand_ about these guys is how they always talk about every species, _every planet,_ as if they only existed for the Empire's amusement.

Nonetheless, he held his tongue- as usual, and hoped the kid was alright.

But still, _still,_ Zare forced his thoughts to stay thoughts, as _words_ would be what got him killed. "Where are we checking next, sir?" Zare instead asked.

The trooper activated the holograph built into the armour on his forearm. "Infirmary." The trooper responded.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ezra played dead all the way until he was put in a bed. The blood gushing from his nose made it look all the more believable- lucky shot, I guess you could call it. "What the hell happened to him?" A guard asked.

"Kid went crazy." The guard guessed.

"Again." The other snorted, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to gesture the wounded men still asleep in the hospital beds, gun shots and blaster burns all healing alike.

And with that, and his vitals normal, the busy and underpaid guards left him in a bed, presuming he would stay in his comatose state.

 _Good thing he was never in one._

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Zare relaxed when they'd finally left anywhere where a prisoner might be. They were not the most liked people in this place- or anywhere for that matter. At least here they were unconscious…

"Clear." A guard chirped, making Zare jump in the slightest. He had learned to control his nerves over the past few months. He wasn't exactly a trader- not yet anyways. But next week that would all change. Acing every simulator in the academy was enough to get you noticed. Soon, he would be promoted- and so would his privileges. He would be granted so much more freedom in the Empire's databases, which would only mean being one step closer to finding his sister.

But for now he was just a cadet, _way_ out of his elements.

"Stay close, Cadet." The other trooper ordered. "We're going to check the boiler." He said, gesturing to the large metal door on the other side of the room. Way out of place, as most of the doors here that _weren't_ made out of bars were built out of cheap and chipping wood.

"Copy." Zare hears himself say. "Sir?" He soon asked after, though, because you didn't get to see half the galaxy in your teens and not develop a curiosity.

"What?" The trooper barked back.

"Why put a boiler room in an infirmary?"

The trooper all but growled, as his partner didn't even turn around and was already half way across the room. "Don't waste my time with stupid questions, boy." The trooper growled, because why wouldn't they put the most dangerous room in a prison in the same place where all of the prisoners in it were incapacitated?! It's just called logic.

"Why are we checking this thing in the first place?" The further trooper asked, already opening the door and waiting for the other.

"Because, you imbecile," The frustrated trooper shot, "do you even know what a boiler is? Builds up too much pressure and it goes _boom._ Do _you_ really trust some outer-rim trash pile to maintain that properly?"

That was all Zare heard as the pair disappeared behind the heavy door. "Whatever," The boy mumbled. He didn't need to take this disrespect. Well, I mean… he _did,_ but he didn't have to _like it._ Zare spun around on his heal, equal parts bored, and on edge, as he examined all of the beds, along with their wounded, comatose criminals. But one bed, which had been laid in, sat empty… Zare's grip instinctively tightened around his blaster.

"Don't shoot!" Ezra called when Zare had finished his spin, glancing around the room and screaming out in surprise when he found himself an inch away from two familiar blue eyes.

"Jeez, kid!" Zare yelped and he jumped back. He starred at him in surprise for another second before the adrenalin pumped out from his blood. "What the hell?!" He called, walking back up to Ezra.

"Sorry!" The kid yelled back.

He stopped. "I remember you…" He said, recalling their last encounter. It had been one of the best days in his seven months with the Empire. Finally, a silent way to rebel without risking his ranks. After months of taking orders from guys you don't like, it felt great to use his uniform for good. Still, it seems like from the battered boy standing before him, his choice was going to come back to bite him.

"What happened to you…?" Zare asked before memory caught up with him. "You were in that riot, weren't you?"

The kid smiled. "Started it."

Zare's jaw dropped. "Are you crazy? You could have been killed! _I_ could have been killed. Why would you do that?!"

"So they'd put me here." Ezra stated as if the two had been old pals.

"Or an asylum!" Zare called back. "Wait…" He said. "You knew I was going to be here…"

The boy nodded. "I _may_ have memorized your troop's rotation…" Ezra sheepishly and shamelessly said. Zare wasn't special, though. Ezra had memorized all of the Empire's troops rotations, _just_ in case, and he was _sure_ he wasn't the only prisoner to do so. "I also know that you don't like the Empire anymore then me. We're both on the same boat here; we're just wearing different uniforms."

Zare laughed. "Oh no, dude. Your ships sinking from the look of it."

"Then throw me a line! You helped me once; I know you're not like them. Please, I need your help." Ezra said. It was his first time since prison- his first time in a long time, admitting he needed it. But there was something about this guy… he could trust him. And that thought alone was scarier then all of the Bronka's out there.

"I don't even know your name!" Zare said, because this stranger sure was asking for a lot!

"Dev Mo-" a short and frustrated bath was taken "…My name is Ezra." He said, followed by a true and genuine smile.

Zare looked at him curiously. He looked so relieved when he said his name, like he hadn't said it in a while. Zare feared when that would become him. Once he graduated from Cadet to Trooper, he would be given a number.

Zare Leonis would be a memory. OZR1200 would become reality.

Maybe they _were_ in the same boat, just on different floors…

"So what exactly is it you need, Ezra?" Zare asked.

He smiled. "You see that room over there?" Ezra said, gesturing to the heavy metal door Zare's superiors were behind. He feared for when they came through it. "Only you have accesses to it." The boy smirked.

Zare froze. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, _no._ You know what's behind that door?"

"Boiler room." Ezra answered. "And do you know what happens when you mess with a boiler?"

"It goes… boom…" Zare's eyes grew. "You want to blow up the prison?!" He shouted, now pointing his blaster, once hanging calmly at his side, directly at the boy. Because what was he thinking, talking to a prisoner? No- what was he thinking _plotting_ with one?!

"Wha…? No!" Ezra shouted, shooting his hands up in defence on pure reflex. "Would you calm down and quit pointing that thing at me? I'm not a psychopath."

"Debatable." Zare slide.

"Funny." The boy responded just as dryly. "Now wanna guess what's directly under our feet?" He asked, never lowering his hands. "Come on, I know they made you study the whole infrastructure of this place before they even let you step foot in it."

Zare thought back to the blue-prints and holograms they had made him engraved into himself. It was grueling weeks of no sleep and memorization, but he had done it. Funny, he had earned his spot in this prison, just as everyone else had, but in a different sense. "How did you know they made us study that?" He asked.

"In this place, you need to be observant." Ezra said. "No way that shot was luck." It took Zare a second before he realized that he was referring to when he had shot the lock, opening the cell. He had memorized all of the major locking mechanisms of the prison for weeks before he was cleared for the outer rim. He had been the envy of his class when they had learned that he and a few others would be shadowing the troopers on their routine missions.

This kid was smart. Luck had nothing to do with that shot.

He made eye contact for a long while before finally asking, "What else do you know?"

Ezra returned the stare. "That you probably know a lot more about mechanics then me. They make you learn that at the academy, too?"

A small smirked quickly crossed the boys dark lips. "Engineering."

"Well, did you know what if that boiler _does_ go off, that that giant door will contain the blast? The only thing that will happen, _if_ the blast is small enough, is pop open the cell right under it. Which would be-"

"Solitary confinement." Zare finished in awe. His eyes grew, and his voice dropped along with his stomach. What was this guys thinking? His grip on the blaster aiming at the boy tightened, though the rest of his body hung loose. "You want me to pop open the doors on _solitary confident?_ You really _are_ crazy! No wait, scratch that, you must think _I'm_ crazy!"

"Just enough."

Zare scoffed. "Well, when you were making up this insane plan, I bet you didn't stop to think that even to create the _smallest_ blast, the pressure would have to build up for _days."_

Ezra smiled. "About five days is my calculation. Just enough time to reach _my_ deadline, and to have you _far_ away when it happens."

Zare starred, completely and utterly dumbfounded. This guy... this kid... this _prisoner-_ he had this all figured out. He was just forgetting one thing. "Why on Alderon would I _help_ you open up solitary?! You are a _prisoner!_ As in, bad people! I'm supposed to get promoted next week, why on all the seven moons would I risk that for _you?"_ The gun finally fell because this kid wasn't a threat, he was just delusional.

For once the blue haired kid didn't have an answer. He just stood there… thinking. "Because I'm not a bad person… but you already know that. Or else that blaster in your head would have already gone off, and I can assure you if you were a real cadet, it wouldn't have been set to _stun."_ Zare followed Ezra's eyes to the switch on the blaster.

"Good catch..." He said, cautiously.

"Look, you see the Empire at work every day- how many times have you actually _agreed_ with the arrests they make?" Ezra asked. His blue eyes pierced Zare's brown ones. "The arrests you _help_ make."

Zare hated to admit it- but four. He had counted. Treason, common theirs and commoner people who just happened to have different beliefs. _Those_ are whom suffer most in the Empire ruled, outer rim judicial system. No guilty man was here.

"You hurt anybody?" Zare asked, hands staying tight around the weapon at his side, slipping a bit with sweat.

"No one more then myself." Ezra answered truthfully.

Finally, _finally,_ the Cadet _dropped_ his weapon. His smile was twice as mischievous as the new friend before him. "Then less mess with the Empire." He said in childish excitement, because if he didn't defy at all agents the dictatorship he was a part of, then it wouldn't matter what his beliefs were. _He would be them_.

Just then a low, moaning screech bellowed from the large metal door. Ezra's smile didn't waver as Zare's fell in fear. "Don't worry," Ezra whispered. "I owe one, you remember?"

As the door quickly opened, Ezra fell to the ground and tossed the blaster back up to Zare. "Don't shoot!" He cried the second Zare's shaking and confused hands grasped the weapon. He was pointing the blaster at Ezra before he knew it, and at that the two troopers raised theirs on instinct as they race to their young counterpart.

"What happened?!" A trooper demanded, but Zare had no answer.

"I tried to swipe his weapon!" Ezra yelled out in fake terror. "He got the drop on me! That guy is crazy!" Ezra's swollen and possibly broken nose only helped his case. The blue haired boy then looked to the other two troopers with a sly grin. "And here I though troopers sucked at hand to hand combat."

"Guard!" One trooper called as the other had just acted as if the kid had said nothing, though Ezra heard a faint growl at the back of his throat.

Guards came storming in the second the troopers voice had been heard. Zare was still giving Ezra a look of utter surprise, gratitude mixed in. "This kid just tried to attack one of our Cadets." The trooper informed, as two guards scooped Ezra off the floor, pinning his arms.

The same trooper looked down at Zare. "Good job, Leonis." He praised, as the other patted him on the shoulder.

"Looks like you're really gonna earn that promotion!" The other said. Zare smiled a bit, looking to Ezra who returned it a bit, giving a slight shrug.

"Well, looking like you're feeling better, Morgan." A third guard cocked. He then turned his attention to the other two guards who had followed him in. "Put him with the rest of his _gang_ in solitary."

"No!" Ezra protested, and Zare almost wanted to applaud the kid for his acting, begging and pleading, lighting them every step out of the door.

The troopers laughed a bit, as if it was funny. I mean, it _was,_ but they didn't know that. They didn't know that that kid way playing them like a flute. "Next time, kid." The trooper said, pulling the blaster from his hands and flicking the switch. "Make sure it ain't set to _stun."_ He said, passing it back.

As usual, he bit his tongue. "Yes sir. Thank you, sir." He bit out, as the two made their way out the door to meet up with the rest of the squadron. The second they were out the door, Zare switched it back.

"Don't call me kid." He muttered, pulling out the key card he had swiped off of the Trooper when he had patted his shoulder.

Wordlessly, he wove through the sleeping inmates, most looking to have some pretty bad blaster wounds… Ignoring it, he made his way to the metal door- the only one in this antique that actually required one, and swiped it.

Oh, this was gonna be fun.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N – When the chapter's been finished for over a week but you literally didn't have twenty minutes to edit. -_- Lol  
Anyways, hope you loved it my loves! Anyone else exited to see the crew in solitary with our favourite kid?! Are they gonna be mad or impressed? Yes? Next chap up in the next week or so! (I hope!)

PS- HOW AWESOME DOES THAT NEW SOLO MOIE LOOK?

If I could write a chapter, can you write a review? 3

-Azilia


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